Things Unseen
by gidgetgirl
Summary: Wes's baby is kidnapped from Lilah's womb by the Watcher's Council; Anni and boys; Hopie's imaginary friend COMPLETE! (Winner of The Passion Awards Best Fanfic round 8.)
1. A Horrible Thing

DISCLAIMER: All Buffy and Angel characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and the WB and UPN, et al.  No copyright infringement is meant and no profit is gained from their use.  Anni, Hopie, and Leo, as well as the other original characters we will be seeing in this fic, are mine.

Author's Note: I wasn't going to start this until I got back to school, but I'm in a really good mood today, and my brother has commandeered the big screen for him and a friend, so I'm exiled to my room, just me and my laptop.  So, this is the next installment in the Only Hope, Le Bella Series.  If you haven't read those, let me catch you up to speed.  If you plan on reading them, I'd recommend skipping these spoilers.

**Hopie (Hope Chase Angel; introduced in Only Hope) is Angel and Cordy's adopted daughter.  She's four, almost five and inhabited by an ancient magic called Shanshu Itzca that effectively makes her an intergalactic Xerox machine.  Long story short, she embodies the essences of Cordelia, Angel, Connor, and Buffy, and she has many of their powers as well as some of her own.  **

**Anni (Annabella Suzette Wyndham-Price; introduced in Le Bella) is Wes's twelve year old sister.  She now is a "non-slayer," a girl with the powers of a slayer but called by a different force.  She's also something of a witch.  Wes and Anni live in Sunnydale.**

**Leo (from A Very Hopie Christmas) is a magical, healing bunny.**

Faith and Lindsey are engaged.

Angel and Cordelia are one step away from being engaged.  She wears his ring around her neck (AVHC)

The couples go like this: Angel/Cordy; Wes/Willow; Buffy/Spike; Dawn/Connor; Faith/Lindsey; Anya/Xander; Fred/Gunn

If you have any questions or are confused, let me know.  I also honor most requests in the way of plot.  I am addicted to reviews, so if you enjoy and have a heart, you will review.

AND NOW… the story

Things Unseen: Chapter One

            Hopie Chase Angel hummed to herself happily.  Today, she decided, was a good day.  It had been sunny outside all day, she'd had peanut butter and jelly for lunch AND dinner, and she and Momma had both just had a vision that meant that she would get to play battle very, very soon.  She stopped humming and addressed her audience.

            "I know you want to come, Claude, but I think it would be better if I took Crossbow with me.  You can come to the park with me tomorrow, Claude.  I promise."  Hopie said sweetly.

            Angel choked a  bit on the blood he was drinking.  "Um, Hopie, I don't think taking Claude to the park tomorrow is a very good idea."

            Hopie batted her eyelashes at her daddy.  "But I promised him, Daddy.  You don't want him to be sad, do you?"  

            Angel mutely shook his head, as usual, vulnerable to his little girl's puppy dog eyes.  He'd leave that particular battle to Cordelia.  He sighed and looked at the flame thrower Hopie had christened "Claude."  Like many things in life, this was entirely Spike's fault.  If he hadn't introduced Hopie to Buffy's flame thrower, whom his daughter had immediately christened "Bob," then Connor would have never bought Claude for the little girl as a Christmas present. 

            "Is it time to go yet?" the little girl asked, wriggling with excitement.  "The purple and black demon guy looked really mean.  It will be fun to shoot him with Crossbow."  Hopie hugged the aforementioned crossbow to her chest.  Angel didn't know whether to be grateful that the visions didn't scare Hopie, or worried that his four year old daughter's idea of fun involved shooting arrows at a Khitoran demon.

            Angel looked at his watch.  "We better head out," he said.  "Connor!  Gunn!" he bellowed up the stairs.

            "Momma says to walk up and tell them, not to yell up the stairs," Hopie informed her papa.  Angel picked her up and tickled her.

            "She does, does she?"

            The little girl's laughter rang through the hotel.

            "Okay, now try to move it just a bit to the left," Willow instructed, all business.  Anni rolled her eyes but did as she was instructed, mentally moving the glass of water to her left.

            "Deep breaths," Willow reminded the girl.  Anni tucked a piece of her long, brown hair behind her ears.

            "Willow, can I talk to you about something?" the girl asked.  

            "That depends," Willow replied.  "Is this an I-want-to-distract-you-so-I-don't-have-to-do-anymore-concentration-exercises something or an I-need-someone-to-talk-to-because-my-brother-is-British something?"

            "A little bit of both.  And it's more of an I-want-to-talk-to-you-because-my-brother-is-a-guy something."  Anni peered closely at Willow to see if she was at all upset by the direction the conversation was heading.

            Willow squealed.  "Is it a boy?  I bet it's a boy.  Oooo, Anni has a boy."

            "Shhh," Anni hushed her.  "You know how Wes is.  If he knew about Jordy…"

            "His name's Jordy!" Willow squealed.  Anni hushed her again.  She blushed.  

            "Yes," she said.  "His name is Jordy."  She played with the charm bracelet she always wore around her wrist.  It had been a Christmas present from Connor, her first major crush.  Her ongoing crush.

            "What's going on?" Buffy asked, entering Willow's room and seeing the two girls sitting on the bed and a glass of water floating midair between them.  She figured Anni's magic lessons were just about over for the day, and she wanted to see if the younger girl was almost ready to patrol.  They'd all gotten used to this schedule over the last few months.

            "Anni has a Jordy," Willow informed Buffy.  Anni groaned.

            "What's a Jordy?" Buffy asked, sitting down on the bed next to them.

            "Just this guy," Anni said.  Buffy squealed.

            Anni groaned audibly, but deep down, she knew that she was loving this.  She loved having a family, belonging.  She loved being more than a translator, a prisoner in a house without love, or worse yet, a slave to the Watcher's Council.  A chill passed through her as it always did when she thought of the one day she'd spent under their care, going through their tests.  She'd wanted to fail those tests, but she hadn't.  The pain of it all was still raw.

            "So, this Jordy you speak of," Buffy said, a note of teasing in her voice.  It was nice to see Anni smile.

            Faith and Lindsey were going through a trial that all soon to be married couples had to go through.  They were playing mini golf.  Granted it wasn't a Cruciamentum, but it was a bonding experience none the less.

            Faith sighed as she lost her fourth ball to that evil miniature pond.  For some reason, she was the world's worst mini golfer.

            "Tell me why we're here again," Faith grumbled.

            "Because I refuse to marry a woman who's never played mini golf.  And because it was the only way to think of to get out of playing tea party with you, Hopie, Crossbow, and Claude."  Lindsey sat his ball down in front of Faith.  He placed his hands over hers and felt the engagement ring he had given her warm beneath his hand.  The center diamond glowed brilliantly in the artificial lighting even as the sun was setting.  Two of the stones were a little brighter than the others.

            "Anni's doing better," he commented, looking at the glowing yellow stone.  "And looks like Hopie might have a battle on her hands."  Each of the stones in the ring signified one of their loved ones.  Hopie was the sapphire, and she wore the matching necklace around her neck.  Faith, glad for an excuse to be rid of mini golf once and for all, switched into Champion mode.

            "We'd better make our way to them," she said.  "Just to be on the safe side."

            "And this has nothing to do with the fact that if you go up and ask for another ball, the manager will start yelling at you again?" Lindsey asked teasingly.  Faith shook her head.

            "Absolutely nothing," she guaranteed.  "Come on, let's go find the little terror wreaker."

            Evil had a way of disguising itself under many veils, some diamond or silk, some tar black and suffocating.  

            The magics they were summoning was old, older than anything they knew.  Older than anything anyone knew.  

            "_Tai canon itsio pad.__  Canhto jutsie itsio a-ped.  Tai canon…" the chanting voices built to a crescendo, and the five girls standing at the points of the pentagon did as they were instructed and simultaneously took the knives and cut gashes in their sides, allowing their blood to drop to the floor._

            _The blood of five __Chosen___

_            The words of another_

_            The ceremony was almost complete._

_            Lilah Morgan groaned and placed her hand in the arch of her back.  She was pregnant, damnit, and that entitled a woman to something.  Moreover, she was an asset to the company, even more an asset now that she carried the former Watcher's child.  She was ruthless.  She was heartless.  She would have the baby, and that man who had left her for some pathetic excuse for a witch wouldn't even know it until the child had fulfilled her promise to Wolfram and Hart.  _

            "Is everyone here completely incompetent?" she raged at the minions, better known as law clerks, who were staring at her.  "I asked for that brief five minutes ago."  A pain shot through her body, and she fell to the floor.

            Hopie stood, frozen to the ground, amid a nest of demons.  Her arm dropped to her side, and Crossbow slowly slid out from her careful grip.  Angel fought, making his way to his daughter.  Hopie's eyes had glazed over.  She started screaming.

            "NO!" the word was screamed with an anguish of a thousand years by a four year old child.  

            "…_itsio__ pad conna tai!"  The chant finished, and the men stared on in victory when their bounty appeared in the center of the pentagon.  The girls, knowing better than to look at what their blood had done, exited the room, holding their injured sides.  They knew better to complain, or to ask what their blood had accomplished.  They learned their lessons well.  Do what you were told, and you were rewarded.  Otherwise…_

            Lilah fell to the floor.  She finally opened her eyes.  Something wasn't right.  Her hand flew to her stomach.  It was completely flat.  The baby was gone.

            Faith launched herself at the demon who was eyeing Hopie like a midnight snack.  She made short work of him and then ran to the screaming child.

            "Hopie, baby, what's wrong?" she asked.  Hopie didn't hear her.

            "NO!" she screamed again, throwing her arms in front of her face.  Her voice slowly settled down to a whimper.  "No, no, no," she cried into Faith's chest.

            Faith, Connor, Gunn, Angel, and Lindsey looked at each other, mystified about the little girl's behavior.

            "No," Lilah said.  "No dammit.  I'm five months pregnant.  This is impossible  No!"

            "Excellent," Quentin Travers said, eyeing the carefully preserved, still perfectly alive embryo before him.  "Absolutely excellent."  He turned to the men who had called the baby forth from the womb.  "You men do fine work," he said.

            "Oh, Anni, I can't believe you have a guy," Willow said happily.

            "Wait a minute," Buffy said.  "He's not a vampire, is he?  Because you're all together too young to be dating vampires."

            "No, he's not a vampire," Anni said.

            "Who's not a vampire?" Wes asked, entering the room.

            "The, uh, non vampiry guy," Willow said quickly.

            _Not buying it, Wes told her mentally.  Willow received the message loud and clear.  _

            Anni did the only sane thing she could think of to do in order to distract her brother.  She sent the glass of water sailing across the room, flinging the liquid in his face.

            "Oh, how terribly clumsy of me, Wesley," she said.  "I do believe Willow is right.  My concentration does need work.  If you'll excuse me, I have homework.  Good day."  And with that, the very proper British Miss walked out of the room, leaving her drenched brother staring at Willow and Buffy.

            Faith felt her shirt soaked with the little girl's tears, and when she looked down, she was shocked to see her shirt soaked with blood as well.  Cuts had sprung up all over Hopie's little body.  The little girl shivered.  Angel's eyes widened in horror.

            "Leo," he said.  

            "Leo," Hopie murmured.  "I want Leo."  As was often the case with Hopie's power, the sheer force of her will brought the entire group to the place she wanted to be.  Back at the hotel, Angel rushed towards the bunny's cage.  He set the rabbit, still a baby, down on the little girl, and was relieved to see the familiar purple light coming from his eyes.

            He looked down.  His baby was healed, but what had hurt her?

            No one noticed the tears that Leo shed as Hopie clung to him, the two of them sharing a grief they could not express at the terrible crime against humanity the Watcher's Council had committed.

TBC… Okay, I know this was a bit confusing, and more than a bit if you haven't read the other installments.  What exactly happened, what Hopie saw, why she saw it, and all that jazz will be revealed in time.  If you have any other questions, email me at zcheer1054@aol.com, but you better review too.  If you guys are really good with the reviews, I might manage another chapter before I go back to school, so PLEASE REVIEW!


	2. A neat Friend

DISCLAIMER: I own only original characters Anni, Hopie, Leo, Maddy, Joscelyn, Chance, Nicolaa, Kendall, and Colette.  All Buffy and Angel characters belong to Joss Whedon et al.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, longest author's not ever, but here it goes.  First off, I finally saw my tape of Tuesday's Buffy episode, and I almost died when they referred to the dead potential, Annabelle, as "Anni."  Then the first time they called the Ubervamp Turocon, I thought they said Turot.  Anyway, I thought I should let everyone know exactly when these stories become AU.  All of the events through the end of season six of Buffy and season three of Angel.  There was never any Cordy/Connor weirdness.  We will be seeing some Potential Slayers in this fic, but they aren't the ones from Buffy.  Okay, second part of Author's note… Thank you SO much to everyone who reviewed.  It's really nice to know if and what you're enjoying.  Please take the two minutes it takes after each chapter to hit the little review button, because it takes me a lot longer than two minutes to write a chapter.  If you're REALLY busy, I do understand, but *puppy face* it makes me feel all good and fluffy when lots of people review.  Two days ago, I stumbled across someone who had all four of the Hopie fics, INCLUDING the new one, on their favorites list, and that person had NEVER reviewed.  I mean, come one, how heartless can you get.  That's at least an hour or two of quality reading, and this person didn't have two minutes to say "I liked this part."  Okay, I'm finished with my ranting now, but please REVIEW if you read it.  I'd even settle for a smiley face, though I love all of you to death who continually give me detailed reviews.  Star, I'm working on some Connor/Anni interaction for you eventually, and there will definitely be some Wes/Lilah confrontation in a few chapters for the person who requested that.  Oh, and Imzadi, you're right about the mini golf, but we're just going to pretend that Faith told Lindsey that she hadn't ever played to discourage him from taking her because she's so awful at it.  Also, thanks to Pyro Bear who gave me the idea for Jordy.  If you guys have some spare time, you might go read (and review) her story Two of One.  I really like the most recent chapters.  One of her characters is having a Hopie-esque moment.

OKAY… and now (finally), the story

Things Unseen: Chapter Two

            When Cordy heard the commotion downstairs, she ran into the room, hoping to find that Hopie had singed off someone's eyebrows or colored on the walls with markers.  Somehow, she knew deep down that something was wrong.

            Hopie was lying in the center of the room, the bunny sitting on her chest.

            Cordelia's voice faltered.  "Is that Hopie playing with Leo Bunny, or is that Leo Bunny resting on Hopie's chest because healing her made him tired?"

            "Um, both," Angel said, not wanting to upset Cordy.  The seer peered closer at her little girl, and saw the blood stains on her shirt, small slashing lines all over the girl's clothing.

            Cordelia walked calmly over to Hopie and picked the little girl up, careful not to dislodge Leo, and set them both in her lap.  She smoothed Hopie's dark black tresses away from the girl's face.  "Hopie, baby, look at Momma," Cordy said, gently stroking Hopie's face.  Hopie obliged.

            "What's wrong with my baby?" Cordy asked calmly.

            "Leo helped," Hopie sniffled.  "Something bad happened.  Something real bad.  My friend says I'll be okay.  The bad thing wasn't after me."

            "Your friend?" Angel asked.

            "Don't you see him?" Hopie asked, sitting up and putting her hands on her hip in a stubborn position.  "He's standing right there."

            Hopie gestured impatiently to thin air.

            "Oh, that friend," Gunn said.  Fred and Lorne entered the room.

            "I'm guessing the red on the little bundle of heroic joy's shirt isn't a fashion statement," Lorne whispered to Fred.

            "What friend?" Fred asked, not voicing the question that was really on her mind.  What had happened to Hopie?  

            Hopie sighed a very adult, very aggrieved sigh.  "He's standing right there.  He says he won't let anything bad near me."

            Angel nodded, finally understanding, on some level at least, what his daughter was going through.  Something had attacked Hopie: something invisible and something powerful.  If her way of coping with it was to invent an imaginary protector, he could deal with the shot to his ego that she didn't believe he could protect her.

            "What hurt you?" Cordelia tried again.

            "Crossbow couldn't hurt it," Hopie said.  She refused to say anything else.

            Maddy was laying on her bed, feeling very put out that she had been left out of all of the fun.  She never got to do anything with the other Potentials.  It wasn't her fault that she had overprotective parents who had perhaps threatened the Watcher's Council a bit too often.  It certainly wasn't her fault that she was titled.  

            "Lady Madeline," she said out loud with disgust.  "A heaping load of good that's done me."

            Her parents had been very explicit on their instructions to the Council.  They would allow her to go the training facility, but she was not to be put in any danger.  The Council knew, quite simply, that her parents and their very royal relatives wouldn't stand for it.

            Maddy sat up when the other girls entered the room.  "Hey guys," she said glumly.  "Do you have any idea how bored I've been?  Tell me what I missed because my parents keep me on such a short leash.  What kind of daring training was I left out of today?"

            The girls knew quite well they weren't supposed to tell Maddy anything.  It was one of the rules, and though nothing would happen to the Lady Madeline if she broke the rules, the other girls knew much better how powerful the Council, especially Mr. Travers, could be.

            "Trust me, Maddy," the little blonde named Chance said.  "You didn't miss out on anything fun."  Chance's side was aching from the blood all five girls had been forced to shed.

            "You always say that," Maddy grumbled.  "Nicolaa?"  Nic was the oldest among the girls at sixteen, Maddy the youngest at eleven.  Nicolaa shrugged.

            "Not feeling particularly like talking, Madeline," she said, always careful to abide by the no nickname rule, even though the girls were allowed to call the youngest Maddy.  Her parents had insisted.

            Maddy shrugged.  "So," she said smiling.  "Who wants to spar?"  Maddy enjoyed her training with a vigor the other girls had long lost.

            Nicolaa shrugged, willing to take the younger girl under her wing, but one of the others stepped forward.

            "I'm up for it," Joscelyn said.

            "Brilliant," Maddy said, her English accent more pronounced that ever.  "And after I flounce Joss, the rest of you can have a turn."

            Chance's hand went unknowingly to her injured side.  Nicolaa shook her head slightly at the girl.  The last two occupants of the room covered Chance's mistake.

            "Yes, milady," Colette said, making Maddy roll her eyes.  Some people never got past the title.

            "Sure, brat," Kendall replied.  "No problemo."  Kendall had no respect for protocol, and for that reason alone, Maddy loved her.  

Maddy hummed to herself as she and Joss walked toward the training room.  She loved training.  You see, Maddy was quite sure she was going to be a slayer someday, she just knew it.  She'd have all kinds of special powers, and when she did, no one would keep her from having fun ever again.

"I don't care what kind of special powers you have," Dawn said with a laugh.  "There's no way that Wes, or Buffy or Wills for that matter, are going to let you go out after dark on a school night without telling them where you're going and who you're going with."

Anni flopped down on her bed in the room she shared with Dawn.  She'd long since started looking on the older girl as a friend, and more than a friend, as a sister, not in a Wes-is-my-brother-you-are-my-sister kind of way, but in more of a you're-getting-your-driver's-license-soon-and-you-know-you'll-have-to-chauffer-me-around kind of way.  Dawn was slowly developing the annoying habit of being right all of the time.

Anni groaned out loud.  "Well," she said.  "I can't very well tell Willow that I have a date, because she'll be so excited that I know Wes will pick it right out of her mind.  It's hard enough to keep from saying a secret out loud, with the psychic connection freak show thing going on between those two, I'd be busted in a minute."

"Can't you just tell Wes you're meeting a boy at the bronze?" Dawn asked reasonably, liking the fact that more often than not now, she was the older voice of wisdom and reason.

"Sure," Anni said with a sarcastic bite in her British voice.  "I can just see it now, 'Oh Wes, dear, even though you don't want me to date until I'm thirty, or at least sixteen, would you mind terribly if I just went to a high school hangout tonight because the boy I have a yen for might be there listening to his cousin's band playing?"  Anni snorted a very indelicate snort.  "I'm sure that would go over well."

Dawn wrinkled her forehead in thought.  "You're right, of course," she said, picturing Wes going into former stuffy Wes mode the moment Anni mentioned boys.  He still pictured the little non-slayer as the four year old girl he had left behind when he went to the academy, not as the almost-teenager she currently was.

"I'm going," Anni said, and Dawn recognized the stubborn tone in her voice.

"You're going to get busted, you know that, right?" Dawn said.

Anni nodded.  "Quite possibly, yes," she said, "but maybe not if you help me.  Cover for me, Dawnie, please?  You know I won't be in any danger.  There isn't any big mystical whosit after me now, I'm almost as strong as Buffy, and I'll take a stake."

Dawn, seeing the eager look on the younger girl's face, shrugged.  "Sure," she said.  Secretly, she thought it would be a good idea for Anni to get a boy before she became old enough for Connor to be interested.  The younger girl's crush on Dawn's boyfriend was cute at twelve, but at fourteen or fifteen, it probably wouldn't be nearly as cute.

Anni, smiling ear to ear, gave Dawn a huge hug.  "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she said.

"Now," Dawn said.  "Onto the important question.  What are you going to wear?"

Lindsey moved closer to Faith as the others tried to cajole Hopie into telling them what had happened.  He put his arm on her shoulder.  She was shaking, not visibly, but he could feel her quivering with emotion underneath his hand.

"She's all right," he whispered, knowing that Faith had loved the little Shanshu before she had ever loved anything or anyone else in this life.

"She's just a little kid," Faith said, trying to push the memories out of her head.  "No one should hurt a little kid."  For about the thousandth time, Faith wondered if she knew what she was doing in her relationship with Lindsey.  The things she'd done, the person she'd been, even where and with what she had grown up with, they all screamed at her that she didn't deserve this, didn't deserve him.

Lindsey kissed her forehead softly.  "No one will hurt her or you.  I promise."  A hard look settled over Lindsey's face, and Faith started to realize what a dangerous man he had the potential to be.

"Lindsey," Angel said, breaking the moment between the two of them.

"On it," Lindsey said, giving Faith a quick kiss before he headed out to see what he could find out about Wolfram and Hart's involvement in Hopie's injury.

Hopie, in the manner of little children, bounced back from the trauma, but Cordy wondered if her baby could possibly be over it so quickly.

"Come on, Daddy, Uncle Gunn," Hopie said.  "I'll go get Connor, and we can play tea party.  My new friend wants to play too."

Gunn and Angel cast envious looks at Lindsey.  He always managed to avoid playing tea party.  

Hopie squatted down on the floor.  "Do you want to play, Leo Bunny?" she asked.  The bunnies eyes looked at Hopie's face, and Fred could have sworn that the tiny rabbit nodded.

"Bring Claude and Crossbow," Hopie yelled over her shoulder.  "And rubber ducky."  Gunn snickered.  Angel glared at him, and the two of them, thoroughly wrapped around the four year old's little finger, went to do her bidding.

            The phone at the Hyperion rang a little later, and Cordelia, banished from Hopie's room by the boys, who were in her belief, walking the careful line between ridiculous and adorable, answered it with a smile in her voice.  "Angel Investigations," she said.  "We help the helpless."

            "Is Lorne there?" a muffled voice asked.  Cordelia raised her eyebrows, recognizing the voice quite well.  She smiled a little, wondering what kind of mischief the little non-slayer was up to.  She loved the way Anni, always caught between good manners and an inner fire, kept Wesley in line.

            "Sure, Anni, hold on just a second," Cordy said.  Anni groaned audibly over the phone.  So much for remaining secretive.

            Lorne came to the phone a minute later.  "Well, hello there, Princess, what can I do you for?" he asked, pleasantly.  After having met the girl a couple of times, Lorne felt a pull towards her.  She was smart, sassy, and she had a singing voice to die for.

            Lorne nodded carefully at Anni's reply and went over to the computer.  "Okay," he said.  "I'm getting online.  You just send those pictures right on –zip- over to me, and I'll let you know my professional opinion."  Lorne raised what would have passed for eyebrows if he had been human when he said the word "professional."  Cordelia rolled her eyes.  What in the world were those two talking about? 

            Back in Sunnydale, Dawn was introducing Anni to the wonders of the digital age, courtesy of her new digital camera.  Anni took off the third outfit, put on the fourth, and after Dawn took the picture, they uploaded them to the computer and sent them to Lorne.

            Dawn huffed a bit.  "I can't believe you're asking a green demon for help," she said.  "I already told you I like the second one the best."

            "I need another opinion," Anni said, "and I can't ask anyone here.  Besides, everyone knows that slightly effeminate karaoke demons have impeccable fashion taste."

            "Did you even see what he was wearing the last time we went to visit?" Dawn asked.

            "No," Anni said, "and neither did you.  In fact, I'd be willing to wager that you saw nothing but Connor at all."  Anni couldn't keep the longing entirely out of her voice, but thinking of Jordy helped.

            Lorne ignored the assassination of his fashion sense by the younger Summers girl.      She's pretty close to tone deaf, Lorne thought, a little vindictively.

            Lorne opened the email with the pictures and thought carefully.  He spoke his thoughts into the phone.  "Skirt number two- that pretty little jean number with the white stitching- with shirt number three and the earrings Dawn wore the last time you were here," Lorne said, barely pausing a moment.

            "You're amazing, Lorne," Anni said.

            "Yes, I rather am," Lorne said.  "And Anni-pie, you'll tell me how the date goes?"

            "It's not a date," Anni said, "but yeah, I'll call and give you all the gory details."

            "Date gory details are the only kind of gory details I like," Lorne commented.

            "Anni has a date?" Cordelia couldn't help but ask.  

            Lorne, without needing to be told, turned to Cordelia, "I'm thinking it's a secret, seer-of-my-heart."

            Cordelia rolled her eyes.  "Isn't your heart in your butt?" she asked, wrinkling her nose.  Lorne nodded.  

"In that house," Cordy said after a moment of silence.  "It won't be a secret for long."

            Just then, a little dark haired whirlwind came flying into the room.  "I wanna talk to Bella," Hopie said.

            Lorne handed her the phone.  "Hi Bella.  I have a new friend.  He's neat.  Your new friend is neat too.  Is he going to be your special friend?"

            "No," Cordelia, Lorne, Fred, and Faith said all at once.  Anni was altogether too young to be having special friends.  They were all a bit protective of the girl.

            "Bella," Hopie said, her voice shaking a little.  "Something bad happened today, and it's gonna hurt."  Cordelia's eyes widened.  Hopie had refused to say a word to the rest of them.  All of a sudden, the little girl's demeanor changed.  "My friend says he has a neat friend and that his neat friend can be your friend too.  I'm going to go play dress up with Claude and Daddy and Gunn and Connor now, only Connor gets to be the Princess this time, because Daddy always gets to be the princess, and that's not fair."  Then the little girl, master of the run on sentence, left to return to what was sure to be an invigorating game of dress up with three of her favorite males, and her favorite flame thrower.

            Lilah Morgan slammed the phone down and raged at the minions in front of her.  "Someone stole my baby," she said, "and do I need to remind you that he was pledged to this company?  I want him found, and I want him found now."   Lilah put the heel of her hand on her head.  "And will someone get me a friggin aspirin.  These hormones are playing a vicious game with my head."

            Somebody tossed an aspirin on the desk.  Lilah looked up and saw Lindsey staring at her.

            "I suppose congratulations are in order," he said, "or at least they were.  Why don't we have a little chat about some invisible friends of yours that spent this afternoon beating up on a four-year-old child."

            Lilah snorted.  "That thing is not a child," she said, causing the hair on the back of Lindsey's neck to raise at the very inhumanness of it all.  "And I have no idea what you're talking about."

            Lindsey looked at her with disgust and hated what he saw there: the truth.

            Quentin Travers watched from afar as Lady Madeline took down Joscelyn, four years her senior. Travers sighed.  Maddy was such a thorn in his side, with her exuberance, her friendliness, and her capability of making the older girls love her.  They weren't supposed to love each other.  They weren't even supposed to be more than passably friendly.  Competition and fear of reprisal were the two things that kept the Potentials going.

            Travers couldn't put that fear in Maddy.  There were some lines that even he dared not cross, and Maddy's parents had some very powerful friends.

            "Did you remember to collect samples from the blood shed offering?" Travers asked the man standing to his left.  "We mustn't be wasteful, and we can do the preliminary tests on those as well."

            The man nodded, and after one last parting glare at Maddy, Travers followed the man into the laboratory.  The research was going well under the circumstances.  It wouldn't be long until they found what they were looking for: the slayer gene.

TBC… Hehehe, slayer gene… all will be explained in time.  I know the plot is getting really complicated, but bear with me.  This will all eventually converge into one story, but for now we need a few set up chapters.  Please review and let me know that you're reading this and what you'd like to see.  I have a lot more Potential centric scenes in mind (are you guys interested in reading about that at all?), an Anya/Hopie scene, and a Wes/Lilah confrontation coming up, as well as more on the whole Anni/Jordy thing.  REVIEW!!!                        


	3. Somehow Familiar

DISCLAIMER: I only own my individual Potentials, Leo, Hopie, and Anni.  All characters associated with BtVS and AtS belong to Joss Whedon et al, and no profit is gained by this piece.

DISTRIBUTION: If you'd like to archive the finished product or any of my other fics, email me at zcheer1054@aol.com

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry it's been so long since the last update, but I came down with a violent case of food poisoning, and I'm still playing catch up.  This chapter probably won't be one of the longest, but please review, because it makes me sad when seven reviewers drop the story between chapter one and chapter two.

Things Unseen: Chapter Three

            Anni, like Dawn and Buffy before her, made her way down the trellis with few complications.  Also like her predecessors, the single complication occurred in the form of a demon, or rather, a former demon.

            "What exactly are you doing, rather small person wearing very party-esque clothes?" Anya asked Anni, causing her to jump literally three feet in the air in surprise.

            "Um," Anni said, using the universal teenage expression meaning *stall, think, brain, think.*  "This isn't what it looks like, Anya," she said.

            Anya raised one eyebrow.  "You're not partaking in the ritual teenage rebellion of sneaking out, therefore outsmarting your parental units in a display of desire for independence and perhaps male companionship?" she asked.

            Anni smiled.  "Actually," she said, hoping Anya would be as thrilled as Willow and Buffy had been with the prospect, "there's this guy."

            "There always is," Anya said.  "If he hurts you, I can find someone to flay him for you," she offered pleasantly.

            "Um, thanks," Anni said, using the second that-offer-disconcerts-me definition of the word "um."  

            "Hey Anya," Anni said, giving her a sweet smile.  "Any chance you won't tell Wes or Buffy or Willow about this?"

            Anya thought about it.  "That would probably be wrong," Anya said thoughtfully.

            "Come on," Anni cajoled, "you just offered to flay someone for me.  That's wrong, too."

            "I suppose," Anya said, running a hand carelessly through her hair.

            Anni decided it was time to take a different approach.  "As someone who appreciates the capitalist system, perhaps you would keep this confidence with some form of monetary compensation," Anni said.  Anya's eyes lit up at the mention of money.

            Anni fished a ten dollar bill out of her pocket.  "I know it's not much," she said.

            Anya grabbed it.  "You're secret's safe with me, kid.  Knock him dead, and remember, this is America, the land of democracy and capitalism, where everything and everyone can be bought, especially when the bills are crisp and smell so of economic potential."

            Anni gave Anya a quick hug, taking the older woman by surprise.  Anya slipped the money into her pocket and walked carelessly into the Summers' house.

            Hopie smiled sweetly at Connor, currently wearing, albeit reluctantly, a tiara on his head.  "Can't we play something else?" he asked Hopie in a grunt.  She shook her head, and gave him a look that very pointedly reminded him that she had been through a lot recently.

            Angel smirked.  "I think you make a very pretty princess, Connor," he said.  Hopie smiled at her daddy.

            "Next time, it can be Uncle Gunn's turn," she said brightly.  Angel squeaked his rubber ducky in excitement.  Finally, someone else was the princess.

            "Hell no," Gunn said.

            "What?!" Cordelia yelled from downstairs.

            "How did she hear that?" Gunn asked, not wanting to incite the wrath of Cordelia for swearing in front of Hopie.

            "Momma hears everything," Hopie said seriously.  She was wearing a little set of armor that Cordy had bought for her a toy store and brandishing a sword.  Connor may have been the princess, but Hopie was the cutest knight any of them had ever seen.

            "Why don't you be a Princess Knight?" Connor asked, desperate to be rid of the hot pink tiara.

            Hopie beamed a smile.  "That's a great idea," she said.  "A princess can be a knight, too, but what will you be?"

            "I'll be your Connor," Connor said, tickling her.  Hopie giggled.

            "He's good," Angel muttered to Gunn.

            "Damn good," Gunn agreed in a whisper.

            "Gunn!" Cordy yelled from downstairs.

            "So," Lindsey said, carelessly lifted a silver orb paper weight off of Lilah's desk, "who's the father?"

            "I don't ask about your relationship with the Bad Seed," Lilah said in a low voice.  "I'd appreciate the same respect.  And put that down, it's an Orb of Lagassis.  There are only a hand full left in the world."

            Lindsey tossed it casually up in the air, putting Lilah on the edge of her seat.  "I know," he said, shooting her a wicked smile.

            "The thing is," he said rolling the orb over his palm and jerking it out of reach when Lilah made a grab for it, "I heard you say your kid was promised to the company, and we both know what that means: either sacrifice or consignment."  

            Lilah shrugged.  "I'm high enough up that it probably would have been assigned as an acolyte to a higher level demon," she said.  "It will be," she corrected, again, royally miffed that someone had managed to snatch the baby from her womb.  What kind of monster would steal a child from a parent.

            "Like you were going to steal it from the father?" Lindsey asked.  Lilah shrugged off his question.  "It's Wesley's," he said.  "Isn't it?"

            Lilah didn't reply, and Lindsey wondered why nothing was ever simple.  He had come in looking for answers about what had attacked Hopie, and now he'd had the burden of telling Wes that Lilah Morgan was pregnant with his child, or at least had been until the child had disappeared.  

            "It's mine," Lilah corrected.  "I don't know what you're talking about concerning that little brat being attacked, but I can't say I'm sorry.  Now get out of my office."  Lindsey dropped the orb and caught Lilah's hand when she went to catch it.

            "I hope Cordelia hears you talk about Hopie that way," he said as the orb shattered.  "You'd never live to tell the tale."

            He walked out of the office.  He had work to do.

            Joscelyn came back to the Potentials' shared room.  She was dripping sweat.  "One of you is up next," she said.  "I'm tired."

            "Tired?" a voice drawled from the doorway.  All five girls jumped at the sound of Travers' voice.  Chance's stomach began to crawl, and Colette struggled not to back herself into a corner.  Travers was in their bedroom and Maddy wasn't.  That was never a good sign.  He tempered his harshness around the privileged girl.  With Maddy gone, Travers had free reign.  "You've been fighting a girl four years your junior, Joscelyn.  Surely you aren't tired."

            No one came to Joscelyn's defense.  They knew better.

            "Chance," Travers barked.  Chance jumped.  "Go keep Lady Madeline entertained," he instructed.  Chance was out of the room before anyone could blink.  The tiny blonde girl, who much resembled Buffy physically, was the youngest next to Maddy, at twelve, as well as the fastest and the weakest among them.

            Nicolaa, by far Travers' favorite among the girls, stared at the corner behind his shoulder.  She had the proper mix of fear, respect, and discipline.  Nicolaa would make a marvelous slayer, he thought.  If only the Summers girl would die, Travers thought, but then again, that seldom worked.

            Nicolaa had long learned to conceal her emotions behind a mask on her face.  She was disciplined, about that Travers was right, and afraid because she wasn't stupid, but she didn't respect him, and she was simply biding her time until she was either called or released from service at the age of eighteen.  She mentally sent signals to Colette to stop looking so nervous and to Kendall to stop looking so insolent.  She cared about the girls more than they would ever know, and a great deal of her time went in to making sure that Travers stayed out of their way and they out of his as much as possible.

            Kendall gazed at Travers, a fire in her eyes that he detested only because he'd seen that fire elsewhere, in other slayer who shall remain nameless.  It pleased him that the fear was there as well, and the obedience.  She had, after all, submitted to the bleeding.  Of course, he'd had to order her severely beaten first, but she had submitted.  Kendall took everything in stride.  She loved Maddy best and Chance next, and she had seen the refusal in Chance's eyes when Travers had instructed them.  Kendall had known the first to refuse would be beaten, so she had simply done her best to get the words out before Chance could manage them.  Better that Travers beat her than Chance.  At least Maddy was safe, and as long as Chance was with her, she was as well.

            When I'm the slayer, Kendall thought, I'm going to come back here and kick his ass.

            "Why don't you take a ten mile jog?" Travers suggested to Joscelyn.  The girl, already exhausted, nodded.  She wasn't as strong as the others, but she was compliant.

            "I expect you back in an hour," Travers said pointedly.  Joss paled slightly but agreed.

            "Colette," Travers said.  Colette looked at him.

            "Yes, sir?" she whispered.  Travers gave her a kindly smile.

            "You look a little pale, my dear.  Why don't you go see if the kitchen has some orange juice.  Low blood sugar is nothing I want my Potentials to suffer through."  Colette's eyes widened in pleasure.  Maybe Mr. Travers was changing, she thought.  She left the room.

            "Kendall, Nicolaa," Travers said, addressing, in his opinion, the two most likely candidates for the next slayer, "I believe you have studies, but since you don't seem busy, perhaps you could add a research paper on genetic abnormalities in the demonic strand Incubus Occus to your plates."  Both girls cursed silently.  Travers left the room, please that he had given the research he needed done to the girls.  Now, his afternoon was free.

            Kendall cursed out loud.  "Damn him," she said, punching the air.

            "You're hand is fisted too tight," Nicolaa commented.  Kendall knew it was the closest the older girl could come to agreeing with her out loud.  She took the offer.  "If you do the research," Kendall said, "I'll write the papers."  

            Nicolaa smiled.  Kendall made the offer every time, even though Nic never accepted it.  Kendall grinned wickedly at Nicolaa, glad to see the older girl smiling, for once, with her eyes.

            Maddy grinned kindly at Chance when she saw the girl running towards her.  "You're next?" Maddy said, pleasantly surprised.  Chance nodded, ignoring the pain in her side, just glad that she wasn't in the same room with Travers any more.

            Maddy, not a bit tired, acted as if she was, sparring with Chance on the weaker girl's level.  Maddy was surprised to find herself on the ground.

            "Gosh, you're bloody fast, Chance," Maddy said, grinning.  Chance rolled her eyes.  Maddy got a thrill out of using mild cuss words.  Everyone was waiting for the stage to pass.

            Maddy gently kicked the girl's feet from underneath her.  When Chance fell, Maddy caught sight of the bandage beneath her shirt.

            "What happened?" she asked.

            "Shhh," Chance shushed her.

            Maddy complied.  "Come on," she said.  "Stand up, and talk while we fight.  Whisper.  We have good hearing, remember?  It's one of the tests."  The Potentials had all been through the tests, some testing their senses to see if they had natural enhancements.

            "Maddy, you can't tell anyone you saw it," Chance said, ducking a punch.  "They'd beat me."  The words blurted out before Chance could help it.  She threw a punch at Maddy.  Maddy caught it, eyes wide.

            She'd heard the other girls whisper, but she'd thought she was mistaken.  Surely Mr. Travers wouldn't…

            And yet, deep down in her stomach, Maddy knew that Mr. Travers would.  

            Anni arrived at the Bronze, having dusted only one vamp on the way.  She desperately tried to dust the last bit of vamp dust off of her shirt, when she remembered Lorne's words.  "Vamp dust won't brush, sweetie pie, but it will blow."  She blew the last bit off, again sending the green demon a mental thank you.

            Jordy saw her the second she walked into the Bronze.  He thought she was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen.  "That's her," he whispered to his cousin.

            Oz looked around and his eyes settled on the girl.  He was grateful that she wasn't in the least bit familiar.  He was in Sunnydale visiting his Aunt and Uncle, and had only agreed to a Dingo's Reunion gig at the Bronze because thirteen year old Jordy had begged him, saying that he needed an excuse to very coolly mention a pseudo-date to a girl he liked.  

            Oz had agreed.  After all, he thought wryly.  Over the years, Jordy had given him a lot.

TBC… Bet you guys didn't see that coming, huh?  Thanks to Elisabeth for giving me the idea.  I promise, fewer plots going on at once when the AI team gets to Sunnydale?  PLEASE REVIEW!!!  Let me know what you like, and which, if any, of the Potentials are your favorites!!!


	4. A Spagetti Moment

DISCLAIMER: I own Anni, Hopie, Leo, and these particular Potentials.All others as well as the general mythos belong to Joss Whedon, et al.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's kind of late, so another shortish chapter.Those of you who requested some Angel/Cordy fluffiness, here it is, though this fic will not be nearly as fluffy overall as AVHC.If you want, I can do another short flufflet about Hopie's birthday or something equally as fluffy.Also, the Anni/Jordy goodness, with a little Oz thrown in for those of you who are Oz fans.Please keep reviewing.I try very hard to honor requests.

Things Unseen: Chapter Four

Angel was lying on Hopie's bed, completely exhausted.Playing tea party and dressup in one afternoon was hard work.He let his eyes close for a minute.So much for resilience and super strength, all it took was one four year old, albeit one also gifted with super stamina, to bring him to exhaustion.

Connor and Gunn had made their ways to their respective corners of the hotel, Connor to call Dawn on his cell phone, and Gunn to thank his lucky stars that he hadn't had to be the princess this time.Hopie, the tiara still on her head, looked at her daddy with a goofy smile.

Cordelia watched the two of them silently from the doorway, fingering the ring she wore on a necklace around her neck.Someday she would be ready, ready for family, real family.Ready for Angel.

Hopie noticed her momma."Daddy's sleeping, Momma," she said, drawing out the word sleeping like she had seen Michelle do on Full House.

"Yes," Cordy said, her lips twitching, "he is."Hopie carefully took off her tiara, placed it on Angel's head, and curled up next to him, burrowing into his chest.Cordelia, unable to resist, climbed onto the other side of the bed, and, resting her head on the same pillow as Angel, wrapped her arms around him.

They made an interesting picture, crammed onto a twin bed with a lavender striped comforter under a canopy.For all of her warrior tendency, Hopie had a weakness for frills.

Hopie, curled into a small ball in front of Angel, closed her eyes and tried, like her neat friend told her, not to think of the horrible thing that had happened.

A horrible thing was happening.Anni couldn't move.She just couldn't take another step.Her heart was pounding, her stomach was making with the butterflies, and she could practically feel herself blush.

This is ridiculous, she told herself.I've looked pure evil in the face and turned it into good.I've escaped from hell, not literally, of course, but close, and I can't walk over there and talk to a boy?

She took the final steps."Hey Jordy," she said shyly.

"Hey Anni," he said.

In the spat of silence that followed, Oz looked at them both carefully."Hey," he said finally.

"Anni's from England," Jordy said finally."She's British."

"Funny thing about English people," Oz said."They're usually British."

"Some are more British than others," Anni commented.Oz gave the closest thing to an Oz smile, which amounted to a slight opening of the eyes.

"This is Oz," Jordy said finally.

"Hey," Oz said, not wanting to break with the established tradition.

"Hey," Anni replied.

Jordy was wearing a fairly tight sweater.He was older than she was by almost a year, and taller by several inches.His hair, unlike his cousin's, was dark and a little too long, so that it fell and covered his blue eyes just a little bit.

"You look good," Anni said, daringly placing a hand on Jordy's chest like she'd seen Buffy do with Spike.She could feel his heart beat beneath her hand, and she almost pulled it back.Then Jordy smiled.

He brought his hand up to hers."Cool," he said.

"Cool," she said.

"You wanna?" he asked.

"Sure," she said.They looked at Oz.

"Sorry," he said."I don't speak Fragment, but I have to go set up to play now, so I'm just gonna go."

Oz left and Anni's hand wandered back to her side as she and Jordy got a table.

Neither of them had much money, so they ordered one soda, two straws.Anni, having recently seen Lady and the Tramp with Hopie, had a brief spaghetti fantasy.She sighed.This was great.

Great, Dawn thought, just great.Covering for Anni hadn't been particularly easy since dinner.She jumped when she heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" she called."I'm on the phone and Anni's asleep."

Wes opened the door.Dawn tried her best not to look guilty.The pillows she'd expertly stuffed under Anni's comforter did look roughly the same size and shape.

Wes smiled at the bed softly."All right," he said.He'd been in to see if Anni had wanted to go get some ice cream with him and Willow.He didn't want the girl to feel left out as the relationship developed.Poor Anni had been through enough.Little did he know that "poor Anni" was not underneath the covers.

"All right," he said."Willow and I are going out, and I think Buffy and Spike are coming with us.Anya, Xander, and Giles are downstairs."

Dawn breathed a sigh of relief when Wes closed the door.

"Connor," she said."Anni has a Jordy."

Maddy was deep in thought.None of the other girls had noticed that her normal chatter had stopped, that a slight cloud hung over her normally impish face.

Travers, Maddy had decided, was not a nice man.

Somebody had hurt Chance, and that meant that someone might be hurting the rest of them too.We'll just see about that, she thought.

"Hey brat," Kendall said suddenly.Maddy looked up.

"Yeah?" she said, taking great pleasure in not answering with the proper yes.

"You trounced Nicolaa yet today?" Kendall asked with a wicked grin.

Maddy shook her head.Nicolaa groaned.Kendall laughed.

"I can't trounce Nicolaa," Maddy admitted candidly."She's too fast and too strong."

"Thanks a lot," Joscelyn grumbled.

"You can't trounce me either," Kendall pointed out.

"Can so," Maddy argued, poking the older girl in the ribs.Kendall giggled.She reached out and tickled Maddy, and the young girl burst into gay laughter.

"Kendall," Mr. Travers said, disliking the sight in front of him.

Kendall straightened up, wishing she knew how to say "screw you" subtly in body language.Oh well, she thought, I'll just have to improvise.

Maddy's green eyes flashed."Is there a problem, Mr. Travers?" she asked, taking a step towards him and looking him boldly in the eye.Her left foot was itching to give him a good kick, but she suspected that if she did and he happened to report her to her family, her uncle or one of her older cousins or whoever visited next might very well give her a well intentioned thrashing.Maddy had always been mischievous, her family always kind in their discipline, and as a result, she had grown up unspoiled, high spirited, and well loved.She couldn't stand the thought of someone hurting the other girls.She had the distinct feeling that when Travers had the girls beaten, he wasn't kind and fair, didn't console them afterwards, and certainly wasn't at all upset over what he'd had to do.

"No, Lady Madeline," Travers said finally."There's not a problem."Darn that girl, he thought.Kendall needed discipline, she needed structure, she needed to be obedient.

Kendall thought for a millionth time that Travers seriously needed his ass kicked.If only she could be the one to do it.

"Kendall and I were going to spar," Maddy said, grabbing Kendall's wrist and literally pulling her out of the room.Kendall spared a last look at Nicolaa, and satisfied that Nicolaa would take care of Chance, she left the room.

"You know," Kendall said to Maddy.

"Yes," Maddy said, "and I'm pissed."She thoroughly relished the cuss word.Kendall laughed and tapped Maddy's mouth lightly.

"Watch your mouth," she said, half jokingly, half not.

Maddy groaned."As if having four older brothers, nine older cousins who are like brothers, and a bushel of female inlaws isn't enough," she grumbled, "now you're telling me I can't say pi-"

Kendall slapped her hand over the younger girl's mouth.

Maddy pushed it off."Next time I'll say it to Travers," Maddy said."See if I don't."

Kendall's eyes widened in mock horror.At least Maddy was safe, she thought.No matter what, Maddy was safe.

The two began to spar, and Maddy got a very questionable expression on her face.Then she smiled.Kendall looked at her warily.

"Tonight," she said."I'm going to find some dirt on our Mr. Travers, other than the obvious of course."Kendall didn't reply, but she knew if Maddy left the barracks, she would follow.There were many places in the building that were dangerous, even to the untouchable Potential.

Hopie dreamed about her neat friend and Anni's new neat friend.Then she dreamed that Anni was making fluffy eyes at a boy.Then she dreamed that Uncle Wes and Aunt Willow and Mr. Spike and Buffy were there.Then she woke up and went in search of a cookie.

Angel woke seconds later to the pleasant feeling of having Cordy's arms wrapped around his waste.He turned around and kissed her lightly on the lips.Halfway through the kiss, she smiled.Then she gently removed the tiara from his head and placed it on her own.

"If one of us is a queen," she said teasingly, "it's definitely me."

"Princess," Angel corrected seriously.Cordy burst out laughing, and continued to laugh until Angel, embarrassed, shut her up with a kiss.

Lindsey walked back to the Hyperion slowly, passing along the way a tuxedo rental store.He couldn't help himself.Feeling a bit self-conscious, he paused and looked at them, trying to picture himself wearing one on his wedding day.Sure, he'd worn them many a time during his service at Wolfram and Hart, but marrying them while married to Faith, that was a different thing.

When his thoughts turned back to Lilah and the missing baby, his stomach churned.A child was precious, no less so to the father than to the mother, and it wasn't any more right that Wes didn't know than it was that someone, a very powerful someone with access to some high magical whatsits, had taken the baby from Lilah.

First he'd tell the others back at the hotel.Then they'd figure out a way to tell Wes.Then they'd get the baby back.Then he'd let Cordy kick Lilah's ass for calling Hopie a thing.On second thought, he'd let Hopie kick Lilah's butt.It seemed just somehow.

He knew one thing for sure.They were all going to Sunnydale, and soon.

When the little foursome arrived at the Bronze, everyone was met with a shock.Wes was shocked that Anni was there and not sound asleep at home.Buffy was shocked that Dawn had actually covered for the younger girl.Spike was shocked that some hormonal time bomb was actually gazing at his little non-slayery bit of a girl that way, and Willow… Willow's eyes were locked on the stage.

TBC… more Maddie, Kendall, Chance, and co. escapades at Council headquarters, a nice little Wes/Anni confrontation, Willow remeets Oz, and the Fang Gang comes to Sunnydale.PLEASE REVIEW if you'd like a timely update.

OH, AND IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT… I'm working on a Connor and Spike centric series fic with Pyro Bear, Lian, and Ivorycat.I'm getting ready to post chapter three, which I wrote, so please go check it out.It's written under the name The Four.Here's a little preview of chapter three.

(Spike and Connor leave a warehouse after fighting vamps, only to find a tiny girl of no more than twelve or thirteen stealing the tires off of Spike's car)

The girl spared Spike a glance, and he realized with a start that she was older than he had thought her.Twelve, maybe thirteen, with bright blue eyes currently narrowed in concentration, the dark black eyelashes shooting off at conflicting angles and giving her otherwise plain face a remarkable look."What's it to you?" she asked, turning her attentionback to the car.Spike sputtered a bit, and Connor's smile grew.

"It's my car," he growled, forgetting to soften his voice, despite the fact that the girl was barely big enough for a vamp appetizer.Drat, he thought, in the old days, I more likely than not would have eaten her in between meals to cleanse the palate.Then, realizing the word "drat" had just entered his thoughts, he thanked his lucky stars that Connor wasn't a telepath.Realizing he had just thanked his lucky stars, Spike growled again and turned back to the business at hand.

The girl stood, proving to be as short as Spike had thought she was, and wiped her hand, sullied by grease from his car, onto her fraying jeans."That's unfortunate," she said, casually tucking a strand of her dark hair behind her left ear.In this light, Spike couldn't tell if it was dark brown or black.At the moment, he didn't care.

"Unfortunate?" he asked, sputtering a bit.The girl placed her hands on her hips at his threatening look, and then her expression melted into one of pure innocence.

"Can I ask you a question?" she said sweetly.Spike agreed.The girl batted those long, black eyelashes at the two men, both twice her size, standing in front of her."Why did you buy a car that only had one tire?"

So Please read and Review, it's called Savior the Series: The Torch Bearer!


	5. Eureka

DISCLAIMER: I only own Anni, Hopie, Leo, and my six potentials.  Everyone else belongs to Joss Whedon et al.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry it takes so long in between updates this time.  Life is hectic.  The more reviews I get, the faster I'll try to update, plus feedback is just generally appreciated.  If you've read Pyro Bear's "And now for Something Completely Different," remember that it's AU from my fics, meaning that as of this point in the story, it never happened.  Happy reading. 

Things Unseen: Chapter Five

When Lindsey opened the front door to the hotel lobby, he wasn't sure what he expected to see.  With the way things were going, for all he knew whatever magical whatsit had kidnapped the baby was after Hopie too, and considering the intensity of magic needed to pull a child away from his mother's womb… 

Suffice to say, Lindsey half expected an apocalypse.  What he did not expect to see was Hopie standing by herself in the middle of the lobby, surrounded by weapons, chatting happily to thin air.

"And this," the little girl said, holding up a sword that was twice her size, "is a broad sword.  It's fun to swing it."  Hopie demonstrated by swinging it expertly back and forth.

The sight of the tiny girl swinging such a big sword still struck Lindsey as funny.  Hopie set down the sword and picked up a glaive.

"And this," she said loftily to the air, "is a glaive.  I like glaives."

Hopie paused as if listening and then finally nodded.

"You're right," she said, "glaives aren't as much fun as crossbows cause they don't make cool sounds."  Hopie picked up the crossbow and fired it expertly into the wall.

"Swshhhhh," Hopie said joyfully, imitating the sound of the crossbow as it fired.

Lindsey cleared his throat, knowing quite well that the little girl was doing something she shouldn't be.

Hopie looked at him, and an extremely innocent expression crept into her eyes.  "Hiya, Uncle Lindsey," she said solemly.  

Lindsey squatted down next to the little girl.  "You know you're not supposed to play with anything except Crossbow and Claude by yourself," he reminded her.

She gave him a very serious look.  "I'm not alone," she said, gesturing to the air.  "Mr. D is playing with me."  Hopie got one of her rare stubborn expressions on her face, daring Lindsey to argue with her.  He kept his mouth firmly closed, pulling the little girl into a hug and trying to control the anger exploding inside that someone had frightened her so badly that she had had to develop an imaginary protector.

Hopie wriggled a little, giggling.  "Would you like to play weapons with us?" she asked Lindsey finally.  "You can be the glaive."

It was too generous of an offer to turn up.

Nicolaa thought her offer was more than generous.  "I'll stay here and cover for you," she said, offering a final time.  _Someone has to take care of Chance, she thought, knowing the smallest girl couldn't take care of herself.  She voiced her concern.  "If all three of us are gone, Travers will likely take it out on whoever is here," she whispered to Kendall.  The darker haired girl finally agreed.  The last thing she wanted was to put Chance in danger by protecting Maddy._

Maddy sighed impatiently.  "None of you has to come," she said.  "I can do the investigating all on my own."  She stuck her chin out a bit stubbornly.  "It's not as if anything bad could happen."

"Can it, pipsqueak," Kendall instructed.  "Why should you get to have all of the fun?"  Kendall's palms were sweating a bit, thinking of the so-called "fun" in store for them, but there was no way she was letting Maddy travel the establishment alone at night.  Besides, even if he didn't find out, it would give Kendall pleasure to know that it would irk Travers that she was doing this.

He would never break her.

Maddy smiled wickedly.  "Do you think he has a bastard child?" she asked happily.  The two older girls both stared at Maddy.

Kendall rolled her eyes.  Maddy was developing a serious love for shocking them with her language.

"I doubt it," Nicolaa said.  "Besides, what would that help?"

"Oh, it probably wouldn't," Maddy said seriously, "but wouldn't it be scandalous?"  Kendall rolled her eyes again.  She didn't know if anything she and Maddy could find would help release them from Travers' fist.  

"Absolutely scandalous," Nic agreed in a rare, joking moment.  The two older girls shared a quick glance.  Maddy still seemed like a kid.  It was refreshing.

Nic and Kendall had long since grown up, and Joss was, if anything, an eager to please teen.  Chance was still little, but her exuberance was somewhat abated by her fear.  Maddy was pure enthusiasm, pure energy.

            "Maybe," Maddy said in an afterthought, "he's gay."  

            Willow's mouth dropped open, as she blatantly stared at the band playing on the stage.  Oz.

            Oz stared expressionless back at the girl.  Willow, he felt a shock of start at the recognition.  She looked different, older somehow, more world weary.  Willow grabbed Wes's arm with her right hand and she felt a calmness settle over her in the form of a comforting hand on her left shoulder.  She turned her head slightly and noticed that no one was standing to that side.

            Wes finally broke his eyes from the boy who was coming dangerously close to leering at his little sister.  Well, maybe it wasn't leering exactly, but it was definitely bordering on leaning, and that was bad enough.  He turned his attention to the stage.  _Oh dear, he thought._

            _Understatement much?_ Willow asked him mentally.  Then she too noticed Anni.  A soft smile settled over her face.  

            _Anni__ has a Jordy, she thought, forgetting to tune Wes out._

            _Jordy__ must die, Wes thought, equally uninhibited._

            Willow rolled her eyes.  

            Anni hadn't yet noticed the unfortunate circumstances looming over her small, slightly rebel, almost teenage shoulders.  She took another sip of soda, smiling at Jordy.  He tentatively reached across the table and took her hands in his.  She felt her heart beat quicken.

            "If you'd like to keep those hands, I suggest you bloody well keep them to yourself," Spike said, interrupting the moment.  "Sorry to interrupt you two little love birds, but…"

            Anni cut him off.  "Oh dear," she said, spotting Wes.

            Spike nodded.  "Bloody right, oh dear," he said.  "Brother over there was under the distinct impression that you were at home asleep."

            Jordy looked at the peroxide tinted vampire, all awkwardness leaving his demeanor.  "I'm Jordy," he said, his voice not quivering in the least.  "Who are you?" he shot Spike a very pointed look.

            "This is Spike," Anni said, "and Buffy," she continued, acknowledging the slayer who had approached their table.

            "Trellis?" Buffy asked, well aware of the myriad of possibilities that escape route offered.

            Anni grinned sheepishly.  "Maybe," she mumbled in response.

            "Wow, you actually have a trellis?" Jordy asked.  "I've never seen one before."

            "You could see mine," Anni offered, blushing when she realized how that sounded.

            "Hey guys," Anni said to Buffy and Spike, shooting them a poignantly hopeful look, "any chance you could run interference?"  Buffy and Spike both looked at her incredulously.

            "Well, one had to try," Anni said, her British accent becoming more crisp than usual.

            Wes was torn as Oz walked off the stage and towards Willow.  On the one hand, he should be there with her when she confronted him.  On the other hand, that, that _boy_ was looking at his little sister as if she was very desirable.  Didn't the little hormone bomb realize that she was just a little kid?  Hardly out of the nursery was Anni.

            Willow snorted upon intercepting this train of thought, releasing the tension from her body.  "Hi," she said shyly to Oz, feeling like the timid high schooler she had been when they had first met.

            "Hey," Oz said.  "Been up to much?"

            "I tried to destroy the world," Willow said conversationally.

            Oz looked around, confirming the world was still there.  Wes's arm wrapped protectively around Willow.

            "Didn't work," he observed.  Willow shrugged.

            After a rough moment, the red head enveloped her in a hug.  He ignored the pull of longing he felt in his stomach.  He wasn't blind, and he could see that the man who looked mysteriously Wesleyesque was with Willow.  

            "Hey Will," Oz said after a moment.  "Why is watcher boy glaring at my cousin?"

            Wes broke his glowering stare to look at Oz.

            "Your cousin?" he asked.

            "Oh dear," Willow said, picking up the slightest trace of Wesley's British accent.  "Is this the cousin who, you know…" Willow trailed off and made some claw and fang motions near her face.

            Oz nodded his head slightly.

            "What would you say if I told you I was a very evil vampire who would tear you limb from limb if you hurt the tidbit there?" Spike asked, ignoring the protests from Anni.  

            Jordy squeezed Anni's hand, letting her know that he could handle himself.  "I'd say that I was a werewolf," he replied, "and that I tend to get very testy when people try to disembowel me."

            "Understandable," Buffy commented.

            "And," Jordy continued, getting a little bit more awkward, "I would never hurt Anni.  She's cool."

            Anni blushed.  That was high praise from a thirteen year old male.

            "As cool as she is," Wes said, his voice in firm control as he approached the table.  "She's most definitely grounded.  So sorry.  Come back when she's thirty."

            Anni shot Wes a disgruntled look.  Wes glared at her.  Willow shot her a disappointed look.

            "All trellis, no magic," Anni said quickly.

            Willow nodded, trying not to smile at the situation.  It all seemed so normal: a thirteen year old boy and a twelve year old girl, out on a date.  Except of course that Anni wasn't your typical teen, Jordy was a werewolf, and Wesley had to be the most overprotective older brother of all time.

            All of a sudden, Anni and Buffy both gasped and fell unconscious to the floor.

            Faith watched Lindsey playing with Hopie with a little smile on her face.  She set her hand on her flat stomach and wondered what it would feel like if she were ever to have children, Lindsey's children.

            "Want to play tea party?" Hopie asked Lindsey, feeling bad that he had missed all of the fun earlier.  

            Again, fate saved Lindsey, as Hopie screamed and Faith fell to the ground, unconscious.

            Just beginning to sneak out, Maddy and Kendall fell to the ground.

            Nicolaa gasped as she collapsed, keeping her eyes open long enough to see Chance and Joss do the same.

            Travers smiled.  "Excellent," he said.  "We found it."  Now that they had identified the gene, there was just the pesky matter of finding the magical resources to activate the gene at will, imitating a Calling.  There was only one person in the world with that kind of ancient magic.

            Hopie stomped her foot and glared at her invisible friend.  "You said this wouldn't happen!" she said.  The most powerful magical force in the world was tied up in the body of a four year old child.

            "I won't help you," Hopie said firmly.

            Travers frowned, not knowing particularly why.  He would find a way to get the Shanshu child.  He had to.

TBC… Okay, sorry if it wasn't my best chapter.  Next up the AI team comes to Sunnydale, and then Anni and Jordy head off to England.  Please review or it will probably be at least three days before I can make time to update.


	6. Cryptic

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Buffy, Angel, or associated characters or ideas.  The plot, Anni, Hopie, Leo, and my Potentials are mine.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm trying to update as often as possible, but life is hectic.  As long as you guys keep reviewing, I'll stay up until three a.m. trying to write a chapter as often as I can.  

Things Unseen: Chapter Six

            Spike had Buffy's head cradled in his lap, and Wes held a limp Anni, both of them trying to awaken their girls.  Willow took a deep breath and closed her eyes, feeling the faint hum of magic in the room.  She felt them, all of them, Potentials across the world, fallen into the same unconscious state that had claimed Anni and Buffy.  

            Jordy took Anni's hand in his without realizing he was doing it.  

Oz looked back and forth between his cousin and Willow, welcoming himself back into the land of the weird.  It was hard for him to believe that he had ever been gone.

            _Anni__ looked around.  The air was crisp and cold.  Her breath was visible in the air, and she could hear the sound of her heart beating.  Suddenly, she could hear other hearts beating, some frantically, some more slowly._

_            She saw the outline of two figures standing in the sky, smiling down at her: one male, one female.  _

_            A dark cloud hovered above in the sky.  It was evil.  This she knew._

_            For the second time in her life, she felt the sensation of being lifted into the air by an ancient power, her hair whipping behind her in a non-existent wind.  _

_            She looked down and saw Buffy glowing brightly, her blonde hair highlighted by a pure white light.  _

_            Faith stood next to Buffy, intertwined with the blonde girl by the same light that ran through Buffy's veins.  _

_            Behind them stood others, dozens of girls, some barely toddlers, some almost women.  Anni heard each of their hearts beating, and as the two people standing in the sky disappeared, she felt the heartbeats converge to a single rhythm._

_            Then she saw the baby._

While Lindsey tried to revive Faith, Hopie threw what amounted to a very large magical temper tantrum.  

            "Your neat friend was supposed to protect Bella!" she said, stomping her feet.   Angel, Cordelia, and Connor came running into the room.

            "What happened?" Angel asked.

            Lindsey, staring down at Faith, his hand gently rubbing the back of her neck, didn't respond.  

            Hopie turned stormy eyes to her daddy.  "Mr. D. promised everything would be okay, but then he let the bad man hurt them and it feels icky and now I gotta go get them back, and I don't want to go because the bad thing is there."  Hopie whimpered the last part.

            "Go where, baby?" Connor asked, his voice soft and gentle.  

            Hopie rolled her eyes as if the answer should be obvious.  "In there," she replied, gesturing at Faith.

            Willow felt Hopie's presence immediately, and she wanted to call out to the little girl, knowing the danger of entering whatever kind of trance the Potentials were in, but Hopie's grumpy refusal to listen came through to Willow loud and clear.

            Sometimes, there was no reasoning with a four year old.

            "Go where?" Cordelia asked, echoing Connor's question.  Her hand went unthinkingly to the ring she wore around her neck.  Motherhood had come to her naturally.  She wasn't sure she would be able to say the same thing about marriage.

            Hopie closed her eyes and started humming.

            _When Anni saw Hopie, she smiled.  Hopie waved at her and then stuck out her lower lip._

_            "Nobody invited me," she said.  "But I came anyway."  _

_            Anni tried to speak, but couldn't.  Hopie took a deep breath._

Travers' eyes opened widely as the test tubes containing blood samples began to explode.  

Down the hall, the Potentials awoke with a start.

            "What was that?" Chance asked, her voice shaking.

            "A slayer dream," Nicolaa replied softly.  "We just had our first slayer dream."

            "But we aren't slayers," Joss pointed out reasonably.  "Not yet."

            Nic shrugged delicately.  "Do you have a better explanation?" she asked Joscelyn calmly.  Joss shook her head.  

            Chance wrapped her arms around her knees.  "It was kinda cool," she said impishly.  "Do you think we could do it again?"

            From the corner, they heard Colette whimper softly.  They had forgotten she was even in the room.

            Colette wanted nothing more in life than to be invisible.  If they couldn't see you, they couldn't hurt you.  She mimicked Chance, pulling her knees close to her body.  

            "Don't worry, Colette," Chance said, her little voice wavering only a little.  For the Potentials, there was always something, or rather someone, to worry about.  Without saying anything else, the tiny blonde Potential stood up, walked over to Colette, and put her arm around the older girl, climbing unabashedly into her lap.  Colette, desperate for something to hold onto, clung to the little girl.

            Chance's eyes widened.  "Maddy and Kendall," she said.  "Where are they?"

            "Well," Maddy said, standing up and blinking several times, "that kicked ass."  She turned to Kendall.  "Don't you think?"

            Kendall rose to her feet.  After a moment, she nodded.  "I could feel the power," she said.  "It was a lot of power.  Did you see the little girl?"

            Maddy nodded.  "And there was a blonde chic who looked a little bit like Chance only a lot older and another girl with darker hair next to her."

            "Slayers," Kendall said, sure of it.  "Buffy and Faith."

            Neither of the girls mentioned Anni.  They hadn't seen her.

            Buffy woke in Spike's arms abruptly.  "Slayer dream," she said, noticing that everyone was looking at her.  "A dark cloud.  Lots of girls.  It sort of felt like Colorado."

            Oz looked at her, just barely cocking one eyebrow.  "Colorado?" he asked, a little skeptical.

            "In a cryptic, non-snowy kinda way," Buffy replied defensively.  She concentrated on remembering the rest of the dream.  "Hopie was there at the end."

            Willow opened her eyes and looked toward Wes.  He was holding a still unconscious Anni.  "I don't understand," she said.  "Why didn't she wake up?"  Willow could feel that all of the other Potentials had woken up.  Why was Anni still asleep?

            Wes looked down at his sister, worry clearly written across his face.

            "Damn you, Anni," he said.  "Wake up."

            _Anni__ felt the others leaving, but she couldn't make herself go.  She looked at the baby._

_            "He's scared," Hopie said sadly.  "So scared, Bella.  We'll help him.  Our neat friends can help."  Hopie was willing to give Mr. D. another shot._

_            "He's so small," Anni whispered, her voice echoing through the non-space._

_            "He's not supposed to be here," Hopie said.  "They took him."_

_            "Why?" Anni asked, not knowing why she expected a four year old to have the answer._

_            "I think they wanted to know if he was like you guys," Hopie said.  "Come on, Bella, time to go bye bye now."_

Anni's eyes opened finally, and she blushed when she realized she was in her brother's arms in the middle of the Bronze.  Jordy, blushing himself, dropped her hand when he realized how close he was to her, with her brother standing right there.

            "Are you okay?" Wes asked.  Anni nodded.

            "He's scared," she said, her voice hoarse.  

            "Who?" Buffy asked.

            "The baby," Anni replied.

            Buffy wrinkled her forehead in thought.  "I never saw a baby," she said.  "I saw girls, dozens of girls, but I didn't see a baby."  Buffy thought a moment longer.  "And I didn't see you."

            Lindsey let out a long held breath when Faith woke up.  A few moments later, Hopie opened her eyes.

            "Am I the only one who's lost here?" Cordelia asked.

            Connor and Angel didn't reply.  

            "What?" Cordelia said a bit crossly.  "You guys can play tea party, but you can't admit you don't have a clue what's going on?"

            Connor and Angel mumbled replies.

            "Weird dream," Faith said.  "Something's up.  Hopie, baby, why were you there?"  The Champion, as always, had her mind on her charge.

            "To make sure it let you go," the little girl replied, bending down to tie her shoe.  

            "The dark mist," Faith guessed.  Hopie nodded, biting her bottom lip as she slowly tried to tie her shoe.

            "Don't forget," Connor told her helpfully.  "Bunny ears."  

            The others looked at him.  "It helps her remember how," Connor said, shrugging.  

            Faith crouched down to Hopie's level.  "Do you know what's going on?" she asked.

            Hopie shrugged.  "The baby is sad," she said.

            "Aren't you a little young to be cryptic?" Angel asked.

            Lindsey, realizing something, interrupted.  "I don't think she's being cryptic," he said.  "She's talking about Lilah's baby."

            Everyone stared at him, shocked.

            He explained, as best he could.  Hopie, bored, started talking into thin air.

            "Adults are boring," she commented, still trying to tie her shoe.  "And this is hard."  The adults, fully engrossed in the conversation, didn't even notice as something, or someone, invisible tied Hopie's shoe for her.

            "Thanks," Hopie said.

            Lindsey finished his explanation.

            "Who would have stolen a baby like that?" Faith asked, her hand unconsciously going to her stomach.  Cordelia's did the same.  

            The question went unanswered.

            Lilah Morgan had the answer, and she wasn't happy with what she had learned.  The partner she was talking to gave her a look of false pity.

            "I'm sorry," he said, "but the partners don't feel the potential gain of one child balances the potential loss of our truce with the Watcher's Council.  You may, of course, have the rest of the day off should you so choose."

            Lilah gritted her teeth.  Those British bastards, she thought.

            Trying to maintain her dignity, she stuffed her belongings in her brief case and headed, almost unknowingly, toward the Hyperion Hotel.

TBC…PLEASE REVIEW!!!  I know this chapter might have been hard to follow, but all will be explained in time.  The stories are getting ready to converge, and I promise a little more with the fluffy and a little less with the cryptic next chapter.  An Anya/Hopie moment, Potential hijinks, a big Lilah/Wesley confrontation, and Jordy and Anni head off to England, all in the next chapter.  I'll try to get it up as soon as possible, but it could be a few days.  Please review, and I'll try to get it up soon.


	7. Misdirected Anger

DISCLAIMER: I own only my individual Potentials, Anni, Hopie, and Leo.  All others belong to Joss Whedon, et al.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  Okay, I am so sorry that this chapter isn't going to include everything I promised you it would.  I've had a 6-8 hour mock trial meeting every day this week, and I'm about to fall asleep on the keyboard as is, so I'm splitting chapter seven into two.  I'll try to get chapter eight up before I go to Regionals this weekend if I can.  I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please let me know what you like/ don't like.  

SINCE I AM FORGOING SLEEP TO WRITE THIS, THE LEAST YOU CAN DO IS REVIEW!

Things Unseen: Chapter Seven

            Lilah Morgan sat uncomfortably in the last place in the world she belonged.  She felt the uneasy eyes staring at her, even as the wheels rolled beneath the van.

            They were in a mini-van.  It was more than could be born.  Lilah stared out the window, feeling the ever more familiar emptiness in her stomach.  Why had she come to the one group of people she despised most for help?  She pushed the thought out of her mind and concentrated on ignoring the wriggling little girl sitting beside her.  

            Since it was dark, Angel was driving, and Cordelia had unceremoniously claimed the shot gun seat.  Lilah was squished in between Hopie and the window, Lorne and Connor to Hopie's other side.  Fred and Gunn, Lindsey and Faith were crammed into the back seat, whispering.

            Lilah thought the affection was nauseating.  Hopie stared intently at Lilah, a frown creasing her little brow.

            "What are you staring at?" Lilah asked, shooting daggers at the little girl with her eyes.  

            "You tell me," Hopie responded.  Connor and Angel smiled identical smiles at Hopie's retort.  The little Shanshu learned fast.

            "Oh, that was original.  I'm wounded, deeply wounded," Lilah said, sarcasm dripping out of her voice.

            Hopie gave Lilah's shin a little sideways kick. 

            "I am original.  There's only one of me.  There's lots of you, and that's why you want him back, cause you think he makes you special but he doesn't like living in your tummy cause the emptiness hurts and I can tie my shoes all by myself."  Hopie demonstrated, her tongue darting out between her lips in concentration.

            Lilah glared at the little girl, blatantly unimpressed with her shoe tying skills.  

            "Lilah," Angel called from the front seat, "you do realize that you're arguing with a four year old child, don't you?"  He couldn't keep the almost laughter out of his voice.  She may have been the injured party this time, but Lilah Morgan was always Lilah.

            "That thing is not a child," Lilah muttered.

            "Am so," Hopie responded before anyone else could say anything in her defense.

             "Are not," Lilah muttered.

            Hopie batted her eyes at the older woman.  "Would you like to meet Claude?" she asked sweetly.

            "Who's Claude?" Lilah asked.

            Lindsey snorted from the back seat, stroking Faith's back gently, trying to sooth the angry slayer.  

            "Maybe," Hopie said thoughtfully, "when we get to the Heckmouth, you can meet Claude and Bob at the same time.  Wow.  Claude and Bob haven't met.  This could be fun."  Everyone in the car pictured Hopie playing with two flame throwers simultaneously.  Cordelia grimaced slightly.

            "Heckmouth?" Lilah asked, not really knowing why she was picking a fight with the little Shanshu when she was dependent on the Fang Gang for help.  "Don't you mean Hel…"

            Cordy cut Lilah off.  "Say that word around my daughter, and I'll tear out your tongue," she called cheerfully from the front seat.

            "Silly Momma," Hopie said, casting a sideways glance at Lilah.  She couldn't help but look at the woman.  She had never felt anything or anyone so empty before in her life.  

            "Silly Momma," Gunn echoed from the back seat, relishing Cordy's threat as if he hadn't received a similar, albeit more civil, threat earlier that day.

            Faith relaxed a bit, leaning into Lindsey's body and resting her head on his shoulders.  She thought back to the dream and remembered why crypticism and interpretation of aforementioned crypticism were not her forte.  Lindsey brought a hand up to gently stroke her hair.  She could feel his heart beat.

            Angel started whistling from the front seat.  Hopie hummed along, and Lorne, on the other side of Connor, lifted an eyebrow in wonder.  Interesting, he thought.  Very interesting.

            Angel couldn't help himself, and the lyrics just came out of his mouth, "Rubber ducky, you're the one…"

            Lilah's mouth dropped open.

            "New song, Daddy," Hopie insisted.  

            Angel thought for a moment.  Sticking with the same motif, he began singing the Sesame Street theme song.

            "Sunny days, sweeping the clouds away…"

            Lilah felt the urge to curse, but settled for looking haughty instead.

            Back at the Summers house, Anni scurried to her room before any of the adults had a chance to say something.  Luckily, they had all been somewhat distracted by a phone call Buffy had received from Angel.

            When Anni opened the door, Dawn's left eyebrow arched gently.  "Got caught, didn't you?" she asked, matter of factly.

            Anni nodded glumly for a moment before smiling.  "But he looked so cute, and he said I was cool and held my hand until Spike threatened to chop his off, and we shared a soda."

            Dawn giggled.  "You're turning into Hopie," she accused, referring to the run on sentence.  Anni sighed, flopping down on her bed.

            "Luckily the slayer dream thing confused them," she said.

            "What slayer dream?" Dawn asked.  Anni explained.

            Dawn rolled her eyes.  "Totally unfair," she said.  "I sneak out and get caught, I get in trouble.  You sneak out and get caught, and you use a slayer dream to distract everyone and end up getting off scott free."

            Both girls jumped a little when they heard Buffy's voice from the doorway.  "I wouldn't say exactly scott free," Buffy said wryly from the doorway, hiding the smile that wanted to creep onto her face at the way the two girls were around each other.  "Wes wants to see you downstairs," Buffy informed Anni, "and Dawn and I need to talk a bit about the implications of being an accessory to a crime."

            "Correction," Dawn grumbled in Anni's general direction, "you sneak out and I get in trouble."

            Anni batted her eyes at Buffy, a trick she had picked up from the little Shanshu.  "It wasn't Dawn's fault…" she started to explain.  Buffy rolled her eyes, but her half smile told the younger girl all she needed to know.  Dawn wouldn't be punished for helping her out.

            Dragging her heels just a bit, Anni headed downstairs to face the music.

            Kendall and Maddy tiptoed through the corridors, somewhat energized by the dream they'd just shared with the other Potentials.  Maddy impatiently pushed a strand of dirty blonde hair out of her face, trying to get a better look at the hallway they were walking down.

            "This is bloody exciting," Maddy said, relishing the word bloody.  

            "This is bloody stupid," Kendall replied, resisting the urge to tousle Maddy's somewhat tangled tresses.  

            "We have to investigate," Maddy said importantly, emphasizing the last word.  Kendall couldn't help but smile at just how much Maddy sounded like an eleven year old child.

            "Well, brat," she said finally, gesturing to a heavy door in front of them.  "Investigate away."  Maddy bit her bottom lip and threw open the door.  Both girls felt their mouths drop open at what they saw.

            Demons contained in plexiglass cells were attached to all kinds of machines, and the room fairly buzzed with the noises the computers made as they recorded observations.  Maddy, despite Kendall's protest, walked up to one of the clear cages and put her hand on the glass.

            'It doesn't seem right," she said, eyeing the demon.  She'd never seen one before, but something about the entire situation struck her as unfair and unnatural.  

            The sound of footsteps coming toward the room had Kendall pulling a frozen Maddy underneath the nearest desk.  Together, the two girls crouched under the desk, each able to feel the other's pounding heart.

            The sound of Travers' voice made Kendall automatically clench her jaw.  Bloody hell, she hated him.

            Neither girl recognized the other voice.  "I'll report your results to my superiors, sir," the man's voice said.  

            "Thank you, Agent," Travers responded a bit sarcastically.  "I'm sure the Initiative will be pleased with our progress."  The pseudo-snarl in Travers; pronunciation of the word Initiative was not lost on the soldier.

            "Our operation is not the Initiative, sir," the Agent responded.  "Under code 6054873, the Initiative was disbanded and our organization was started."  The girls could practically hear Travers' dismissive shrug.

            In a different part of the facility, Chance, Colette, Nic, and Joss were still discussing the dream they had all shared.

            "Both slayers were shorter than I expected," Colette ventured, her voice still shaky.

            Chance beamed.  She was very short for her age.  

            "Size versus speed and strength," Joss responded.  "We're talking about two very different things here."

                 Nicolaa remained surprisingly quiet.  "For one of us to be the slayer," she said after a moment, "one of them would have to die.  Buffy or Faith."  Before they had been faceless; now things weren't so simple.

            The girls sat in silence for a moment.  "That's what I felt," Nic continued.  "We were all there, something holding us together, but Buffy and Faith were different.  As long as they're alive…" she trailed off.

            "Well, the girl in the air was kind of glowy too," Chance commented, shrugging.

            "What girl?" the others asked at once.  

            "The one floating in the air, her head thrown back and her hair flying behind her head.  She was talking to the little girl and looking at the man and woman and the baby."  The others stared at the tiny Potential.  

            "Chance," Nic said seriously.  "Tell me exactly what you saw."

            When Anni saw Wes, she gulped.  He looked a level passed furious.  A muscle in his neck was practically twitching, and Anni, for the first time in her life, was afraid of her brother.

            "Wes," she said softly.  He turned to look at her.

            "Annabella," he regarded her, completely in control.  She gulped again.  Annabella: never a good sign.

            "I'm sorry I snuck out," she said, stuffing her hands in her pockets.  "I didn't think you'd understand about Jordy."

            "Understand?" Wes said, his mind truly elsewhere.  "What's there to understand?  You snuck out of the house to rendevouz with a teenage werewolf who also happens to be a walking hormone time bomb.  I don't know whether to be more afraid that he'll eat you or that he'll try something."            

            Anni blushed a deep scarlet.  There was a reason, she remembered, that she didn't speak with Wes about this type of thing.  "I can take care of myself," she replied, a little fire coming into her voice.  "Either way."

            Wes ran his left hand roughly through his hair.  This was too much.  First it was just taking care of Anni.  Then it was boys.  Then, finding out that he was, that he might be a father.  That his maybe child had been magically kidnapped.  Most of all, it was that he had no control over any of it.  Lilah had taken the control from him.  From that matter, in her own teenage sneak-out-the-trellis way, so had Anni.  Neither of them trusted him.

            "I have bigger problems to mess with," Wes said, more cruelly than he meant to.  "So, I'll give you the Cliff's Notes version of this lecture: danger is bad, sneaking out leads to danger, and therefore, sneaking out, in addition to being generally dishonest, is also bad."  Anni bristled at the tone he was using with her.  He'd never spoken to her like this, like she was somehow worth less than other people.  She pushed the thought out of her mind.  "It was thoughtless, stupid, and damn irritating," Wes concluded, his mind flashing again to Lilah.  

            "It was selfish," he said, not really thinking about Anni and failing to notice the stricken look on her face as he began to yell.  "I should have known about yout.  What was I thinking?"  

            Anni turned and fled the room, tears gathering in her eyes.

            Wes, cursing himself for letting the situation with Lilah get the better of him, turned to follow her, but was distracted when the doorbell rang.  And rang.  And rang again.

            Ten seconds and twelve rings later, he answered the door, to see Hopie happily poking the doorbell, trying out different rhythms.  Angel was tapping his foot to the rhythm.

            "Was that the Sesame Street theme song?" Willow asked, coming into the room.  

            "Yup yup," Hopie replied happily.  "See, somebody likes it," she said, looking pointedly at Lilah.  Wes met the woman's eyes.  She stared back, unabashed.

            The rest of the group came into the house.

            "Is Aunt Anya here anywhere?" Hopie asked.  "Leo Bunny is in the car and he says he misses her."

            "She'll be here later," Willow promised, making a mental not to steer clear of any ex-vengeance demon vs. bunny battles that could feasibly occur.  Hopie smiled and then tugged on Cordelia's shirt.  Cordy bent down to listen to the little girl's whisper.  Seconds later, Hopie was skipping toward the car to get Claude.  As she had explained to her Momma, Hopie was afraid the flame thrower might get lonely.

            Upstairs, Anni had locked herself in the bathroom.  _I should have known about you.  What was I thinking?_  Wes' words ran through her head.  She sat in the bathtub, fully dressed, reluctant tears slipping slowly off her face.  

TBC… Sorry for the anni sadness, but I'm going somewhere with this, and I promise the England adventure as well as Hopie/Anya fluff next chapter.  And if you're confused about why Chance could see Anni… good.  All will be explained in time.  PLEASE REVIEW IF YOU WANT A NEXT CHAPTER ANY TIME SOON (it's too late for me to be subtle in my requests.  Four AM… Do you see the kinds of sacrifices I make to write this story for you guys? *guilt trip*)


	8. Extortion

DISCLAIMER: By now you should know which characters I own and which I don't.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry it's been so long since the last update.  I'm trying to update as often as I possibly can, and as long as you guys review, I'll make every effort to keep doing so.  Enjoy.  

Things Unseen: Chapter Eight

            Anni, her small body trembling as the tears rolled down her cheek, climbed into the bathtub, fully clothed, curled her body into a small ball, and, absorbing the coolness of the tub, fell asleep.

            She slept fitfully, the past haunting her dreams.

_"Mummy," four year old Anni said to her mother, "I finished this scroll translation."_

_            "Mother," the British woman corrected.  She picked up the child's translation and looked it over as Anni looked on eagerly._

_            "The third line is wrong," the woman said, her voice sharp and her eyes bored.  _

_            "I'll get it right next time, Mu- Mother," the little Anni promised._

_            "Perhaps you're just not quite suited," her mother replied not unkindly, but the words cut into the little girl.  Not suited for magical academics meant not suited for this family, not suited for anything._

_            Maybe, little Anni thought, I'm not._

_            Then little Anni disappeared, and twelve year old Anni saw the baby, the air around him dark blood red with the disturbance in the magical seams of the world.  Dark magic had been awakened.  Anni shuddered._

_            "Who are you?" she asked him, the words coming out of her mouth slowly, painfully._

_            Then Hopie was standing there.  "I think they wanted to see if he was like you."_

_            Like me?  Anni thought.  The words echoed in her head._

_            "Who would want to be like you?" a phantom voice asked.  "I should have known about you."_

_            Then Anni saw Buffy and Faith, and behind the two of them stood the little Shanshu and to Hopie's right, there stood another girl: little and blonde and full of energy._

_            To each a half._

Anni awoke with a start, confused to find herself in the bathtub.  She stood up, and pushing her hair, soaked with her tears, out of her face, she spoke out loud to herself.  "To each a half?" she questioned out loud.  "Half of what?  And what does Hopie mean they think he's like me?"  Anni mumbled to herself, her heart still aching, as she tried to make her way back to her room.  Angry voices from downstairs made her freeze in her path.

            "So you're pregnant with _my _son and you don't even do the common courtesy of letting me know?" the voice was loud and quivered with anger, and it only served to remind Anni that Wes was angry with her, that he didn't want her.  That she didn't suit.  

            Lilah's voice sent a chill down Anni's spine.  "I was going to," the woman absolutely drawled, "only… no, on second thought, I wasn't going to tell you because, let's face it, it was fun well it lasted, but you can have your little Miss-Good-Witch and I'll find someone else to screw."

            Anni muttered an unflattering term that would have made Wes blush to hear.  She wanted to smack Lilah.

            "So now that the Council has my son, you want my help?  You think I'll just help you get him back so you can give him to some demon overlord?"  Wes had the urge to slam Lilah into the wall.

            Lilah put her face right next to his, nuzzling it a bit.  "Yes," she whispered.  "That's what I think."  She drew a finger softly down the side of his face.  Wes grabbed her hand and held it tight.  

            "I should have known about you," he said, causing Anni to gasp from her position on the steps eavesdropping.  

            He thinks I'm like Lilah, she thought.  

            "This is all your fault," Lilah hissed, throwing a punch at Wes.  "You think they wanted him because he was my baby?  The Council could care less about my son.  They want your son, and I'll give you two guesses as to why."

            "Anni," Wes realized.  "They want him because of Anni, because of what she is."

            "That thing you call your little sister is a Potential, though a particularly pathetic one at that, and my guess is that whatever the Council is doing to my son has something to do with that little freak of nature bitch."  Lilah heard Anni moving on the steps and a small, self-satisfied smile appeared on her lips.  

            Anni fled to her room, waking Dawn in the process.  She grabbed some clothes and started stuffing them into a bag.

            "What are you doing?" Dawn asked groggily.  

            "Leaving," Anni said, feeling as if she had been shot.  It was her fault.  All of it was her fault.

            _I should have known about you._

Dawn sat up in bed.  "You can't do that," she said.  "It's three in the morning."  Anni grabbed her backpack and flung it over her shoulders.  

            "Anni," Dawn said, "you can't leave."

            "I have to," Anni said softly.  She waved her hand in front of Dawn's face.  "A-despieratat," she whispered, knowing the simple spell would force Dawn to sleep. 

 Anni sighed, and grabbed some of the herbs and magical ingredients she had stock piled from Willow's collection.  If she wanted to cast a big spell without Willow knowing about it, she'd have to take precautions.

            Setting out the candles carefully and burning a purple fig leaf, she recited the words she knew would temporarily blind Willow from magical perception.  She had several hours.  It would be enough.

            Like a pro, Anni scaled down the trellis.  "I won't be along again," she promised herself out loud, her face still red from the tears she'd shed.  "I won't."

            And with that, the non-slayer headed toward Jordy's house.

            When Oz woke up the next morning at eleven, Jordy was gone, and there was a note on his bed.

            "Anni needed help," Oz read out loud.  Jordy, like his cousin, was a man of few words.  Oz sighed and threw on some clothes, ready to make his way to the Summers' house.

            Dawn and Willow were both still asleep, and Wes was in conference with Angel, Buffy, and Lilah, trying to decide on a course of action.

            They saw Hopie walk by, carrying a flamethrower in each hand.  Moments later, the little Shanshu walked by again, carrying poster board and some markers.

            "I could have a talk with Mr. Travers," Buffy offered, very much so wishing that talk could involve her foot and his butt.

            Lilah snorted, looking down her nose at the slayer.  

            Hopie walked by a third time, carrying a big pitcher.

            "Hopie," Angel called, "what are you doing?"

            "Playing capitalistic gain with Aunt Anya," Hopie called back.

            Lilah made another derisive snort.  Hopie turned around and smiled sweetly and the older woman.  "Maybe you and I can play fun-with-weapons later," Hopie offered, batting her eye lashes at Lilah before exiting the house.

            When they hadn't heard any noise for an extended period of time, Kendall poked her head out from under the desk, making sure to place herself between Maddy and any incoming danger.  

            "Is it safe?" a little muffled voice asked from under the desk.

            Kendall breathed out a sigh of relief.  "Yeah, brat," she said.  "It's safe."

            Maddy crawled out from underneath the desk.  "Bloody hell," she said, relishing the phrase, "that was close."

            Kendall didn't say anything for a moment.  "Maddy," she said finally, "this is dangerous.  If Travers had found us…" she trailed off.

            "I won't let him beat you," Maddy promised, sounding younger than her twelve years in her innocence.  

            "You couldn't stop him," Kendall said simply.  Without a pause, she led Maddy back toward their wing.

            When they got there, Chance was sitting cross-legged on the floor, telling the others a story.  _  The older girls were engrossed._

            "The little girl had dark hair, and she felt like Buffy and Faith and something else.  The other girl, she was about my age, maybe a little older, and she was floating in the air, surrounding by a light yellow light.  She was powerful, I think, and like us, but not.  Like maybe she's what Buffy could have been only she wasn't."  Chance took a deep breath, the first she had taken since she had begun talking.

            "Why did I have a different dream than you guys?" she asked finally.

            Nic looked at the girl carefully, her gray eyes wide.  "I don't know," she said softly.  "But we need to find out, and we need to keep this confidential."

            All of the girls understood what that meant.  Travers was not to be told.

            Joss stared down at her hands, wondering why Chance was special.  Maddy was important and therefore above impeachment, and it was clear that Nicolaa and Kendall were the two Travers thought most likely to be called.  That just left Joscelyn and Colette.  Joss looked at Colette, who was sitting, her face pale, on the floor.  Neither girl said a word.

            Not too far away, Jordy was sitting in an alley, holding an unconscious Anni in his lap.  She had been unconscious for hours.  Immediately after she'd managed to transport the two of them across the ocean, she'd fallen to the ground, too drained of energy to move.

            Jordy, still a bit uncertain with girls at thirteen, brushed her hair gently out of her face.  "Come on," he said.  "Wake up, Anni."

            Anni didn't respond, deep in the midst of another cryptic dream.

            _A man in a white lab coat was lecturing younger scientists.  "Genetics," he said in his patented listen-to-me-I'm-important voice, "is the key to understanding enhanced abilities."  The other scientists nodded._

_            Anni saw the baby, and the air quivered with his fear._

_            The man and woman she had seen in the slayer dream suddenly stood beside her.  The woman, her long medium brown hair tucked gently behind her shoulders, said in a calming voice, "We're with you.  We're friends."_

_            Neat friends, Anni thought, remembering Hopie's words._

_            The man turned to her, a slight lilt in his voice, "To each a half," he said.  "Genetics is the Key."_

Anni murmured in her sleep, and Jordy, his face flushed as the idea came to him, bent down awkwardly and quickly placed his lips on hers.  She woke up immediately, and the two of them flew apart, each feeling awkward and embarrassed.

            "I though it might wake you up," Jordy muttered.

            "It did," Anni replied shyly.  She looked around.

            "How long have I been out?" she asked.

            "A long time," he replied, ducking his head, still a bit shy.

            Anni stood up.  "Come on," she said, pulling him behind her.  "It's time for us to go undercover."

            When Oz got to the Summers' house, he was greeted by the sight of Anya and Hopie, each with bright smiles on their faces, sitting behind a sign that read Lemonade Stand.  Currently, they had two customers: an older man and a teenage girl.

            "How cute!" the girl exclaimed, looking directly at Hopie as she did.  "How much is the lemonade, sweetheart?"

            After conferring briefly in a whisper with Anya, Hopie turned back to the girl.  "Fifty cents," she replied.  The girl bought some lemonade, and Hopie and Anya both stared reverently at the money.

            Hopie jingled it in her hand.  "It makes a neat noise," she noticed.

            "Such is the glory of capitalism," Anya replied seriously.  

            The old man, panting from power walking, eyed the lemonade greedily.  He thrust two quarters at Hopie.

            Anya raised her eyebrows, and Hopie obediently looked back up at the man.  "It's two dollars," she said sweetly.

            "What?!" the man replied.  "That girl just paid fifty cents."

            "She wasn't as thirsty as you are," Hopie replied seriously.

            "That's extortion," the man said angrily, digging two dollars out of his wallet.  Anya gladly took his money, 

            "That's capitalism!" Anya and Hopie chorused at once.

            The man gave them a disgruntled look.  "Thank you for your business," Hopie recited proudly.

" Please come back and exchange your money for our goods in capitalistic trade again promptly," Anya said.

            Oz walked up.  

            "Lemonade?" Hopie asked.

            Oz eyed the flame throwers, sitting on the ground next to Hopie.

            "What are those?" he asked.

            "That's Bob and Claude," Hopie replied.  "We're friends."  Anya leaned down and whispered something in Hopie's ear.  "Sometimes I just call them Incentive," Hopie repeated dutifully.

            Oz raised his eyebrows slightly.  "Incentive for what?" he asked.

            Hopie picked up one of the flame throwers.  "Would you like some lemonade?" she asked again, very sweetly.

            "Something about this just seems wrong," Oz commented, digging some money out of his pocket..

            "What could be wrong with the willing and eager exchange of money for goods?" Anya asked.  

            The little capitalist disciple nodded her head, her pig tails swishing back and forth as she did.

            "It's all about supply and demand," Hopie informed him loftily.

            Anya nodded proudly.  "We demand the money.  You supply it."

            Oz walked into the house, leaving Anya and Hopie playing with the money.

            Willow came rushing down the stairs.  "Wes," she called, "we have a problem.  A big, big problem."

            Wes forced his eyes to meet Willow's, even as Lilah snorted again.  

            "Anni's gone," Willow said.  "I just felt her use an incredible amount of magic, more than I think she even has available.  I can try a locator spell, but she has to be literally an ocean away for her to have used that kind of magic, and she's not alone."

            Oz nodded to Willow.  "Jordy's with her," he said, ever a man of few words.

            "Dammit," Wes said, hitting his hand on the table as Willow performed a locator spell.

            "Poor Wes," Lilah commented sarcastically.  "Sissy ran away from her bubba."  Lilah spat on the ground.  "You people make me sick."

            "England," Willow said after a moment.  "She's in England, near the Council."

            Everyone in the room groaned.

            "This is not a good thing," Buffy said, quite aware of the power held by the Council, especially in that part of the world.

            "Uh, guys," Oz said.

            "Bloody hell," Wes muttered, feeling a ball of guilt settle in his stomach next to the fury he felt towards Anni for pulling this stunt.

            "Guys," Oz said again.

            "This just can't get any worse," Wes commented, running his hand gruffly through his hair.

            "Guys," Oz said again, finally getting their attention.  "Tomorrow's the full moon."  His words hung in the air.

            Anni and Jordy stood outside of Council headquarters.  "Well," Anni said, "here goes nothing."

TBC… up next, Anni meets the Potentials, Jordy goes wolfie, and more info on the cryptic dreams stuff.  PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 


	9. Hopie Knows

DISCLAIMER: Okay, here's my laundry list: I own Anni, Hopie, Leo Bunny, Maddy, Chance, Joss, Nicolaa, Colette, and Kendall.  All others belong to Joss Whedon et al.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm updating as much as I can, and you guys have everyone who reviewed last chapter to thank for this one, because over half of you did not.  In fact, there are still some people who have this on their favorites list who haven't reviewed (cough* **Just Groovy** *cough* *cough*), and I'm missing a bunch of you guys.  *sniff sniff* **Imzadi****, ChasingAngel, Si.Crazy, AlaskanTiger, Keeper, Posha, Angel-Piper-Freak, DaMick, Zoe, lily, Sayra Louise, ichargirl, Beboppin' Betty, Katie, Mia, Tania, kay, Michele, Lokia, Antonia, Raine, Aset, Rebecca Anne, Adele Elisabeth, Arekanderu,  Mereangel, Tariq, ally, Kim, Teri, Wrinklepiggy, Kharma, Jodine, C/A4ever, Slayer, boy slayer, and all of the rest of you… where did you go???  I know that a lot of you don't like reviewing EVERY chapter, but could you drop me a line every couple of chapters to let me know how it's going?  Pretty please?  And to all of you who DO review every chapter (you know who you are), THANK YOU!!!   Let me know what you'd like to see, and I'll do my best to oblige.  I love you all.  **

AND NOW… the story

Things Unseen: Chapter Nine

            Jordy's facial expression remained unchanged as he stared at the formidable gate surrounded the Council Complex.

            "This it?" he asked, as always minimizing the verbiage.  

            Anni, a lump rising in her throat, nodded.  She had been here before, for the testing.  Mr. Travers had wanted to be sure she was a Potential.  Anni shook her head as if to clear it.  She wasn't that little girl anymore.  She had power now.  She was the non-slayer, as powerful as any slayer, in control of her own destiny.  Under Willow's tutelage, she was becoming a powerful witch in her own right.  There was no reason to fear this building.

            And yet, she did.

            Jordy squeezed her arm.  "So, do you want me to go in with you?" he asked quietly, well aware that the sun was high in the sky.

            She nodded and then shook her head.  "If I want them to believe I'm here as a Potential," she said slowly, "I have to go alone."  She wished she'd thought of that before she'd dragged Jordy halfway across the world.  Anni's legs wobbled.  She was still a little weak from using so much magic.

            Jordy nodded, his facial expression never wavering from the chilled look he had borrowed from his cousin, Oz.  "If you need me, just call," he said, grinning the tiniest bit.  "I have good hearing."

            Neither of them realized that tonight was a full moon.

            Anni nodded, and feeling a bit brave, gave Jordy a quick hug before walking up to the towering wall that surrounded the complex.  

            She pressed a button on the intercom.  "Anni Wyndham-Price," she said, the crisp British accent coming fully back into her voice.  "I'd like to speak with Mr. Travers."

            Travers mindlessly twirled his pen on his desk, thinking to himself.  They had located the slayer gene, the spot on chromosome nine that coded for the potential to be a slayer.  All of the girls who had been identified as Slayers-in-Waiting had it.  The babies they had managed to borrow with ties to the Potentials had it, though it was highly recessive in the male children.  The magical mechanism by which the gene was turned on, expressed into super powers, was still a mystery.  

            Travers knew one thing.  To activate it one would take a great deal of magic.  Far more than he could summon on his own.

            That left Quentin Travers with a problem.  How to get ahold of the Shanshu child?  After their last encounter, he was not particularly anxious to mess with Miss Summers again.  If only he had gotten a hold of her as a Potential, before she had been called.  He would have taught her a bit about respect.  A bit about fear.  She'd still have the scars to prove it.

            Travers thought briefly about Chance and Kendall, wondering which one of them he should order beaten next.  Kendall always needed a beating, and Chance, though she wasn't a particularly rebellious little thing, rubbed him the wrong way.  Something about her appearance, her mannerisms irked him.

            He thought wistfully about beating Maddy, but some things weren't meant to be.

            A voice interrupted his thoughts.  "Mr. Travers," his secretary said, poking her head into his office.  "There's a girl outside asking to talk to you.  She claims to be one Anni Wyndham-Price."

            Travers tapped his pen on his desk.  The Wyndham-Price girl?  How utterly convenient.  How utterly satisfying.  

            She would bring the Shanshu child to him, of this he felt sure.  And in the meantime… well, that girl had been the cause of an awful lot of problems to him.

            "Send her in," he said.

            Willow thought Wes's head was going to explode.  _Breathe_, she reminded him silently.  He took in a ragged breath, and almost upon reflex pulled the red haired wiccan closer to him.  She wrapped her arms around him, sharing his fear, his fury, and his determination to give Anni what-for when they got her home.

            Across the room, Lilah Morgan rolled her eyes.  "Well, isn't that sweet," she said, her voice dripping with poisoned honey.  Neither of them looked at her.

            "Hello," she said cruelly.  "Baby missing, bratty sister blowing the element of surprise, and watching the two of you cuddle- not helping."

            Willow tried to imagine the child that Wes and Lilah would have, but she couldn't.  She wouldn't begrudge him past affairs, but she had trouble reconciling the man she shared her thoughts with and the desperate person who had slept with the enemy.

            _We'll get him back, she thought simply, seeing the baby in her mind's eye.  __We'll get Anni back too, and when we do…_

_            I'm going to kill her_, they both thought at once.

            "We'll get your baby back," Angel said from the doorway, watching Willow and Wes.  Cordy came up behind him and slipped an arm around his waist.

            None of them voiced the one thought they all shared.  _What then?_

            Faith and Buffy were in the basement, sparring.  Both of them needed to vent some frustration.

            "I'm going to kick Travers' ass," Buffy said, dodging a blow from Faith.  Faith immediately followed with a round house kick.

            "Can't you share, Buff?" she asked, anger boiling up inside of her at anyone who would steal a child, hurt a child in any way.  "I wouldn't mind a little Travers Ass kicking session myself."

            Hopie watched from the top of the stairs, thoroughly engrossed.  Kick Travers' ass.  It sounded like fun.

            Dawn sat down next to the little girl and watched her sister and Faith spar.  After a moment, Hopie grinned at Dawnie.

            "Hiya, Dawnster," she said, using her Uncle Xander's nickname for Dawn.      

            Dawn shushed her, not wanting either of the slayers to realize they were there.  

            "Bella made you sleepy," Hopie commented in a little kid whisper.

            Dawn rolled her eyes and nodded.  "Little brat," she said, truly a bit miffed.  "Last time I cover for her."

            Hopie grinned at Dawn.  "I knew," she confessed, looking like she was quite pleased with herself and her mischief, "but Mr. D said to let her go."

            Dawn ignored the little girl's babbling.

            Hopie tilted her head as if listening to something.

            "You're right," she said out loud, looking at the two slayers and then at Dawn.  

            "Right about what?" Dawn questioned.

            Instead of replying, Hopie bounced down the stairs, taking them two at a time.  "From each a half," she said in a sing songy voice.  "To each a half."  Then she giggled when Buffy and Faith finally saw her and Dawn watching.

            "Hiya Aunt Faith.  Hiya Buffffffy."  Hopie loved saying the older girl's name.  

            "Hiya Hopie," Faith replied, wondering just how long the little girl had been watching.

            "When are we gonna kick Travers' ass?" Hopie asked, batting her eyelashes at the slayers and hopping from foot to foot.

            Faith groaned and then picked up the little girl to whom she was Champion.  She put her face close to Hopie's.  "Don't say that word," she said with a grin.  Hopie smiled and shrugged.

            "Okie dokie," she replied giggling.  "When is silly-billy Travers going to meet Crossbow and Bob and Claude and I only have two hands, so one of them is going to feel left out."

            Faith and Buffy couldn't help but grin.

            "So we're going to England?" Dawn asked from the stairs, a little excited at the prospect.  

            Buffy shrugged.

            "Yes," Giles said from the doorway, "we are.  In fact, I do believe it would be entirely appropriate to put the expense of chartering a plane on my Council expense account.  Don't you agree?"

            So it was decided.  They were going to England.  All of them, in full force.

            "Even Mr. D?" Hopie asked, widening her eyes at Giles.  "Please, Mr. Giles?"  Giles nodded.  

            "Your friend is welcome," he said in an exaggerated silly voice.  

            Hopie rolled her eyes.

            "Mr. T?" Xander questioned from the doorway.  "Your imaginary friend is Mr. T?  As in the bald guy?"

            Hopie giggled.  "No, silly," she said, still in Faith's arms.  "_Mr. D_.  Miss T is _his _friend."

            "A woman version of Mr. T?" Xander grimaced at the mental image.

            Anya appeared at the top of the stairs.  "Hopie, what happened to the rest of the lemonade?" she asked.  "There are little boys outside and they keep looking at my breasts.  I think we should make them give us money and give them lemonade, because they can't have my breasts."  Everyone stared at Anya.  "They belong to Xander," she clarified.

            Giles cleared his throat, and Faith had the uncontrollable urge to cover Hopie's ears.  

            "My friends drank it," Hopie said, talking about the lemonade.

            "Well, where is the money?" Anya asked.

            Hopie thought for a minute.  "Imaginary money," she said finally.

            "Imaginary friends," Faith clarified for the confused Anya.

            Anya sighed, highly aggrieved.  "But imaginary money cannot be exchanged for material goods or put in a healthy investment CD to mature over the next ten to fifteen years at a fixed interest rate far higher than it would in a savings account!"  The vengeance demon was clearly distressed.

            "Don't worry, Aunt Anya," Hopie replied.  "We can have a Blood Stand and sell blood to Daddy and Mr. Spike.  They'll buy anything."

            Faith snorted.  Angel and Spike were such pushovers.

            "Very well then," Giles said, polishing his glasses on his shirt.  "You go sell your blood, and we'll all be ready to leave within half an hour."

            "From each a half, to each a…" Hopie sang as she climbed down from Faith's arms.  Then she stopped.  "Hey Dawnie, on the plane you and me and Daddy and Connor and Mr. Spike can all play tea party and Connor's an awfully pretty princess but I bet Mr. Spike would be oh so pretty too."  

            Dawn stifled a giggle.  With that image in her mind, she went to find her boyfriend.  So Connor was an awfully pretty princess, was he?

            Anni told her legs to stop wobbling, but they wouldn't listen to her.  She was quickly regaining her strength, but magic drained her far more than physical exertion ever could.  She was still weak, but given an hour, she'd be back to normal.

            "So," Travers drawled, pretending civility, " you're back.  Our little runaway, back in the fold."

            Anni stood demurely in front of him, her hands folded in front of her body.  She looked the very epitome of manners.  Inside, she was cursing this man like a sailor.  She took a calm breath.  All she had to do was wait out the storm.  Then she could find the baby.  Save him.  Then she could prove to Wes, to all of them, that she was worth something, that she could suit.  

            I'm not like Lilah, she thought passionately.

            Travers sensed her mind wandering, and he caught her hand roughly in his.  He saw the fear jump instinctively into her eyes.  He didn't see the anger it masked.  He squeezed her hand, so tightly that he was sure it would bruise.  Anni, weakened or not, was severely tempted to throw him through the wall.  She was perfectly capable of it, but she simply counted through the pain of her throbbing wrist, concentrating on the thought that the longer she kept her powers a secret, the more capable she would be of getting the baby back where he belonged.  The less Travers knew about the whole non-slayer bit, the better.

            "We don't take kindly to trouble here, Annabella," Travers said dangerously.

            "Anni," Anni corrected automatically.  

            Travers' face darkened, and he threw her to the ground.  Anni forced herself to cower, planning the many ways she was going to hurt him all the while.

            Travers made his voice turn suddenly pleasant.  "I'll show you to your room," he said.  "You'll be wanting to meet the others."

            By the time Travers got to the boarding room, the Potentials had long stopped their secret conversation.  Super hearing did, after all, have its advantages.

            Feeling quite satisfied, Travers sent Anni a look that sent shivers down her spine.  "Get yourself settled.  We'll acclimate you to your training shortly."  He left, his mood vastly improved.

            Nicolaa looked at the new girl with concern showing on her normally blank face.  Travers had taken a dislike to this girl, who couldn't be much older than Chance.  That was never a good thing.

            Anni looked at each of the girls, recognizing them from her slayer, or rather her non-slayer, dream.  "I'm Anni," she said.  "Annabella if Travers is around."  The last thing Anni wanted to do was get the others into trouble.  They didn't have her powers, and in many ways, they were defenseless.  She wouldn't let them be hurt on her account.

            Maddy looked at the new girl and grinned.  She didn't seem afraid of Travers.  "I'm Maddy," she announced happily, "and Travers is a bloody bastard."

            "Maddy!" Nicolaa and Joss said at once.

            Kendall gave Maddy a warning look and then grinned.  "I'm Kendall, and the brat's right," she said finally.  "Travers is a bloody bastard."

            "Lady Madeline is the only one of us who could say it though," Joss warned.

            Maddy flipped her hair and grinned unabashedly.  "That's Joss," Maddy said, sticking her tongue out at the older girl.  "I flounce Joss regularly.  And Nicolaa is the serious one.  Colette's behind you, trying to melt into the wall, and Chance is… what are you doing Chance?"

            Chance was staring at Anni, her little pixie mouth opened wide and her eyes widened.  "You're the girl from my dream!" she said out loud.  "You were all floaty."

            "Yeah," Anni replied a bit reluctantly.  "That happens sometimes."

            "Are you a slayer?" Colette asked timidly.

            "No," Joss replied sharply, rolling her eyes.  "Buffy and Faith are the slayers."

            "I'm a non-slayer," Anni replied, "and I need your help."

            Sitting in the chartered airplane before it took off, Hopie grinned.  She'd never been in a plane before, and Mr. Giles said it would take fourteen hours to get to En-gland.  That was a whole lot of time to play princess and tea party.

            She dug into the bag of toys that Cordelia had packed to keep her entertained.  She handed a hot pink tiara to Spike.

            "Here, Mr. Spike," she said happily.  "You can be the princess first."  And with that, they were off.

TBC.. PLEASE REVIEW.  Anyway, if you want it, the next chapter can have some shippy fluffiness for each of the couples on the plane, as well as some quality sneaking around and plotting by Anni and the Potentials… and then, everything starts to make sense, I promise.  Let me know what you want to see.


	10. Logic

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the BtVS or AtS characters.  They are the property of Joss Whedon et al.  I do however own Hopie, Anni, my Potentials, and Leo Bunny.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Guess who's a little insomniac at three in the morning?  That means you guys get an update.  Pleeeeeasssseeee review.  Oh, and if you review anonymously, sign a name at the end of your review, because ff.net doesn't display the name of an anonymous reviewer currently. 

 And can I emphasize the importance of the review?  As in, if some more of you don't review the next chapter, then I can't promise subsequent chapters.  Now I'm not the evil person who would just leave this story all together, so for all of you who have been reviewing, leave an email address in your review, and you'll get the rest of the story emailed to you.  If you don't review, no story.  Black mail, plain and simple.  If I feel like most of you who are reading are reviewing, then I'll just post like normal. 

 Before you rant at me for blackmailing you for reviews, take a moment to realize that it takes me, on average, seventy times as long to write a chapter as it would take you to review, and reviews are the only way I know people are even reading the story.  Keep the requests coming.  After this, I'll probably do another short fluffy bit… I'm thinking Hopie's fifth birthday.

Oh, and for anyone who requested more Oz action, fluffy bits on the plane with the guys wearing tiaras, Faith and Lindsey screen time, Angel/Cordy fluffiness, and Anni's explanation of her non-slayeryness to the Potentials… here it is!  See how nice I am to my reviewers.  The time for subtle hints has long passed (in more ways than one!)

AND NOW ONTO THE STORY

Things Unseen: Chapter Ten  

            Nicolaa sat down on her bed, her head regally angled and a serious expression on her face.  "So," she said to Anni, thinking that the little girl still looked very young, "you say you're a non-slayer."

            Anni nodded, "And I need your help," she reiterated.

            "What the hell is a non-slayer?" Kendall asked, not beating around the bush.

            "Cliffs Notes?" Anni asked.  The girls all nodded.  "I was chosen by the power of Turot, the ancient vampiress with the strength of a slayer, called by the opposite power.  I was supposed to be an arch slayer, an evil slayer.  I was given a choice, just like Turot had been given.  I chose not to be the arch slayer.  It was too late for the magic to abandon me, so my decision sorta morphed the magic into good magic, and I was called as something that wasn't a slayer or an arch slayer."  Anni took a deep breath.

            "A non-slayer," Maddy said, catching the drift.  "That's bloody cool."  

            Anni smiled at the girl who was almost her same age but seemed much younger.  

            "So," Kendall drawled, "if you have slayer strength, why didn't you kick Travers' ass?"

            Anni looked thoughtful.  "Tempting," she conceded, "but I'm here for a reason, and if Travers' thinking I'm helpless gives me the upper hand, then that's what it's gonna take."

            Chance looked at Anni closely, astounded to see how accurate a picture her dream had given her of the non-slayer.  

            "Do you know Buffy?" Colette asked from the corner, her voice barely more than a whisper.  Anni looked at the girl.

            "Yes," she said.  "I live with her, my brother and I do."

            The girls looked astounded.  "And Faith?" Nicolaa questioned, getting caught up in the excitement despite herself.  

            Anni grinned, thinking of Faith.  "She's a frequent visitor," she said.  "She's Hopie's Champion, and Hopie's like family, so that makes Faith like family too."

            "Who's Hopie?" all of the girls asked at once.

            Hopie grinned proudly at the site before her.  "You know, My Connor," she said thoughtfully, "I think Mr. Spike might be an even prettier princess than you are."  Buffy snorted.  

            Spike sat there patiently, the pink tiara sitting lopsided on his head.  The things he did for the half-bit, he thought to himself.

            Dawn was in hysterics, cuddled to Connor's side, tears streaming down her cheeks.  The Big Bad, she had to admit to herself, made a very fetching princess.

            Angel was holding a tea cup, pretending to drink out of it.  Connor was trying to pretend like he wasn't doing the same.  Gunn was hiding with Fred in the back of the plane, and Wes was deep in conversation with Willow.

            "Why doesn't Watcher Boy have to play?" Spike said, referring to Wesley.

            "Mr. D says he's busy, and Miss T says him and Aunt Willow need each other right now.  They said to let them have special time."  Hopie grinned.

            Angel, Connor, and Spike all silently cursed Hopie's invisible friends.

            Spike looked to his right, where Faith and Lindsey were sitting, her head on his shoulder, like one person, completely in tune with each other.

            "Why doesn't the slay-whipped boy play?" Spike asked, earning him a menacing glare from Cordelia.

            Hopie looked to Uncle Lindsey.  "Cause he and Aunt Faith are getting married," Hopie said as if that explanation made sense, "and I like cheeseburgers."  She added the last part as if it clarified something, because in four year old logic, it somehow did.  Spike nodded as if everything made sense.

            "Right-o," he said.  

Lindsey grinned into Faith's hair.  She smiled up at him.  "You think you're so special," she said, "always getting out of playing tea party and dress up with Hopie."

            "I played Weapons with her," he said, mockingly defensive.  Faith rested her hand on his well-sculpted and life worn face.

            She looked into those finely lashed eyes, and she wondered briefly, for maybe the millionth time, if she would ever have a little boy with those eyes, a little girl with his smile.

            "Will you play tea party with our daughter?" she asked him seriously.

            "I would dress up like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz for our daughter," he answered seriously.  "Especially if she had her mother's smile."

            Faith, content, rested her head back on Lindsey's chest, feeling his muscles move slightly as he took in even breaths, and listening to his heart beat.

            If things went according to plan, they would be married in one week.  When she'd been little and hiding under the kitchen sink from her drunk mother, little Faith had always planned the big events in her life.  One of her favorite imagination games was Wedding, where she thought about wearing the pretty white dresses like the women from Mommy's soap operas.  She knew well enough to be quiet during Mommy's soap operas.  

            As if sensing Faith disturbing thoughts, Lindsey put his arm around her and pressed a light kiss to her brow.  The action banished his unwanted thoughts as well.

            Hopie looked up suddenly.  "Hey Mr. Oz!" she bellowed across the plane.

            "Indoor voice, Hopie," Cordelia reminded her.

            Oz, sensing he was being paged responded with a, "Yeah," no inflection in his voice.

            "You're funny," Hopie said.

            Oz gave her an Oz grin, which translated to a slight movement of a single facial muscle.

            "Come play," Hopie said.

            "Do I have to be the princess?" Oz asked, wanting to set parameters before joining the play.

            "Nope," Hopie said.  "I think you should come tell me a story about a puppy who bit you once when he was little."

            No one bothered to ask how Hopie knew that Oz was a werewolf.  The Shanshu child, in touch with the universe through these ancient powers, just knew these things.

            _"A bit odd,"  Mr D said to Miss T, "isn't it that they don't question how she knows about Oz, but that they have no trouble 't all believin' we're make believe."_

_            Miss T smiled softly.  "They'll know soon enough," she said, casting a soft glance toward the other end of the plane._

_            "Aye," the man replied, looking down at Hopie with a grin.  "Soon enough."_

Willow read the concern on Wes's face without bothering to read his mind.  "Is it the baby or Anni who's worrying you more now?" she asked.

            Wes rubbed his chin slightly.  "Well," he said, his voice deceptively calm and flat.  "On the one hand, I'm concerned that Anni might be lying in a ditch somewhere, completely drained of her life force by the amount of magic she used.  On the other hand, I have no idea what those bastards at the Council are doing to my child.  Then again, I'm worried that Anni might be getting into trouble with that boy she brought with her.  On the other hand, my child could very well be pledged to an upper level demon because his mother is a mortal hell bitch."

            Wes took a deep breath.  "And, of course, there's always the off chance that Anni will take it in her mind to do Quentin Travers some serious damage."

            Willow grinned at the thought.  "Would that be so awful?" she asked.

            Wes shook his head.  "No," he said, "that was the bright side.  Then again, Travers has a lot of power there, and Anni would be weak.  If he touches her…"  Wes trailed off, his voice going deadly.

            Willow squeezed his hands.  "Don't be all pessimisty," she advised, ignoring her own belly rumblings.

            "It's my fault," Wes said ruggedly.  "All of it is my fault."  He stared out the window, barely noticing the hand Willow placed comfortingly on his neck.

            Lorne walked up to the front of the plane where Oz and Hopie were sitting.  "Nothing I love like a good story," he said.

            Oz looked at the slightly effeminate demon, no expression appearing on his face as he nodded slightly, continuing his story.  Spike, as always, rolled his eyes when he took in Lorne's outfit.

            "Poppet," he said, addressing Hopie.  "Look at Lorne and tell me again why _I am the princess."_

            Hopie obliged.  "You're a princess.  Lorne is a diva.  He's green.  I like puppies."         Oz nodded, strangely following the little girl's logic perfectly.

              "I saw Hopie in my slayer dream too," Chance commented.  "The others didn't."

            "Well," Anni said slowly, " I saw Hopie, and I think Buffy and Faith did too.  But then again, Hopie is part Buffy, and Faith is her Champion, so I guess that much made sense."  She looked at Chance, feeling as if she had met the girl somewhere before.  "But why could you see her?"

            Joss grumbled to herself.  So now Chance was special.  And the new girl was a non-slayer.  Kendall and Nicolaa were special.  Maddy was special.  

            Colette saw the look that came over Joss's face, and she tried to tell herself that the other girl couldn't help but feel jealous.  Personally, Colette, though timid in appearance, was looking forward to her next sparring session with Joscelyn.  If anyone needed to be flounced thoroughly and often, it was Joss.

            Anni brought the conversation back to the issue at hand.  "My brother, his, well his old girlfriend is pregnant, at least she was."  Maddy's eyes opened wide.  This sounded scandalous.  She smiled as Anni continued.  "The Council did some sort of spell, and they kidnapped the baby, tore him from Lilah's womb.  Hopie said they wanted to see if he was like me."

            Everyone but Maddy looked down at the mention of the spell, guilt wrenching in their stomachs.  They had been a part of that spell.

            "Way with the Oh My Gosh making," Chance blurted out.  "Travers used us, our blood, and he…"

            Chance trailed off at a warning look from Nicolaa.

            "You can trust me," Anni said.  "You have to."

            Nicolaa had learned the lesson from Mr. Travers himself.  A Potential shouldn't ever trust anyone.

            Kendall looked at Anni for a moment and then stepped forward.  "Those bastards," she said violently.  

            "We have to get the baby back," Colette said, surprising everyone with the firmness in her voice.

            Chance nodded firmly, and Maddy smiled a huge smile.  "An adventure," she said.  Anni looked at Joss and Nic.

            Nicolaa wanted to do this, felt she needed to do this, but she didn't want to put the others in any danger.  She was the oldest.  She tried to take care of them.  "I'll do it," she said, causing the others to drop their jaws to the floor.  Nicolaa volunteering to break rules?  "Whatever you need done that is a major violation, I will do it."

            Nicolaa gave Maddy and Kendall a hard look.

            "Is that clear?" she asked them, her voice clipped with unspoken authority.  Anni suppressed a smile.  That was the way Wes talked to her most of the time.  She felt tears rise in her throat at the thought of her brother, but she pushed them back down.  She would find a way to fix this.

            "Sure," Maddy said, clearly meaning the opposite.  "It's clear."

            Nic turned her glance to Kendall.  "Is that clear?" she asked her, her voice low and dangerous.

            Kendall smiled at Nicolaa.  "Bugger that," she said, slinging an arm around Nic's shoulder.  "We're in this together."

            Maddy clearly looked as if she wished she had come up with that answer.  She quickly covered for her mistake.  "I know where they're doing research," she said proudly.  "Kendall and I were there earlier."

            "Those were demons," Kendall reminded the young noble girl.  "I didn't see any babies."

            "I know where he is," a strong voice said.  Everyone in the room turned to stare at Colette.  "Follow me."

            Outside, the sun was setting, and in the not so far distance, a plane was finally landing.

            Oz concentrated on not turning all wolfie.  Hopie grinned at him.  "Can you give yourself fuzzy ears?" she asked, batting her eyelashes at him.  "Please?"

            Cordy picked Hopie up as they walked off the plane.  "I don't think that's a very good idea," she said.  Hopie laid her head on her mother's chest sleepily.

            "I wanna see Mr. Oz as a puppy," she commented with a yawn.

            Oz shrugged.  "Kids," he commented.

            "Tell me about it," Angel said, glad to finally have discarded the tea cup.  He put his arm around Cordy, pulling both her and Hopie into a tight embrace.  

            "Maybe you two should wait at a hotel," he said into his lover's ear.

            Cordy looked him lovingly in the eye.  "Not a chance, Buster," she said.  "Can you imagine the temper tantrum if we were to do that?"

            "Yeah," Connor teased, "and Hopie might be pretty upset too."

            Angel leaned in and gave Cordy a quick, gentle kiss on the lips.  In her sleep, Hopie toyed with the ring around Cordy's neck.  

            Cordelia felt the familiar tug at her heart strings.  It was almost time.

            As a group, they made their way rapidly toward Council Headquarters.

            Anni and the other Potentials followed Colette, none of them noticing when Joss slipped off to inform Travers of their actions.  

            Maybe, Joss thought, then Mr. Travers will see that I'm special too.

            Outside, Joss heard a wolf bay at the moon.  She shuddered.  The wolf almost sounded as if he was singing.

            Anni paused in her tracks, also hearing the wolf.  She smiled, recognizing the song as the one that had been playing at the Bronze when she and Jordy had shared their soda.  Maybe it was on the way to officially becoming _their_ song.  As an after thought, Anni realized that now was the time to hope that Jordy had his wolfie impulses under control.

TBC… Next chapter: revelations about Hopie's invisible friends and the Chance thing, Jordy all wolfie, and everyone and their dog kicks Travers' ass.  After that, one chapter where everyone is flying back to Sunnydale, and some personal conflict resolution with Anni, Lilah, Wes, and Willow, and the final chapter will be the Lindsey/Faith wedding.  If you want to read it, review!  


	11. Revelations

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the Buffy or Angel characters.  I do own Anni, Hopie, Maddy, Chance, Kendall, Joss, Colette, and Nic.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks to you all for reviewing.  Short author's note, cause it's a long chapter.  Please keep reviewing.  Oh, and to the person who requested the w/l ending… fair warning, probably not gonna happen unless my muse surprises me.

Things Unseen: Chapter Eleven

            Cordelia shifted Hopie in her arms as their group stood outside of the Watcher's compound.  Hopie squirmed a bit, wanting to get down.

            "Momma," she said in a fake whisper, "are we gonna play battle now?"

            Cordelia smiled at her daughter and shook her head.  "Maybe," she whispered back.  She thought about everything she had been told about the Watcher's Council.  "Probably," she corrected herself, "but promise Momma you'll be a good girl and not run off."  Hopie nodded seriously.  "And try not to hurt anyone too badly," Cordy added, knowing that most of the inhabitants of the Council were human, and therefore infinitely weaker than the four-year-old child she held in her arms.  

            "Crossbow?" Hopie asked hopefully.

            Cordelia looked in her Hopie supplies bag.  She had graham crackers, juice boxes, some crayons, the tiara Spike had been wearing earlier, a beat up teddy bear, and… she found the crossbow and handed it to the little girl who returned a huge smile.

            Buffy, Giles, and Faith inspected the gate that fenced in the complex.

            Giles took off his glasses and cleaned them on his shirt.  "Well, I suppose I could try to get them to open the gate for us," he said.

            Faith snorted, and she and Buffy, thinking in tandem, kicked the gate, causing it to fly open.

            Hopie clapped her hands joyfully before shooting a mischievous look back towards Connor and Dawn.

            "To each a half," Hopie giggled.

            Connor looked at Dawn.

            "She keeps saying that," Dawn said, a touch of whine entering her voice.

            Connor shrugged.  "She's a little kid," he commented.  "She says a lot of things."

            Hopie stuck her tongue out at Connor.  "He bends his arms like this in front of the mirror," Hopie said to an amused Dawn, demonstrating by flexing her well-toned little muscles.  "And then he makes a funny grunting sound.  And sometimes, when he's the princess…" Cordy, sympathetic to Connor, gently clapped a hand over Hopie's mouth.

            "Mr. D says you've got your Da's pride," Hopie commented.  "And his hair gel."  Connor's hand went self-consciously to his hair.  He'd been wearing it gelled lately.

            Connor rolled his eyes.  "I'd like to meet this friend of yours sometime," he commented.

            Hopie batted her eyelashes at him.  "Oh, you will, My Connor," she replied, grinning at her brother.  "You will."

            Jordy prowled outside the window of the first floor corridor of the compound, humming his wolfie version of a song he couldn't seem to get out of his head.  Somehow, it made him think of Anni and how cute she was when she had a little drop of soda on her lip.

            Suddenly, his wolf ears perked up.  Inside the compound, he could hear someone talking to herself.

            Joss was giving herself a pep talk, trying to talk herself out of the belly rumblings that were shouting at her not to turn the others in.

            "They'll hate you if you turn them in," she whispered to herself, as always, concerned with how these action would affect her.  She completely disregarded the fact that the other girls would be beaten within an inch of their lives if they were found out.  "But Travers would like you.  He'd see that you were special, and it's really their own fault for breaking the rules.  They're only doing it because they think that Anni is so special."  Joss's voice wavered with bitterness.

            Hearing Anni's name, Jordy cocked his head slightly to the side.  This girl was obviously the enemy.  A growl emerged from the back of his throat, and his muscles braced themselves for his next action.

            Colette walked with a confidence in her gait that the others had never seen.  Finally, they came to a hallway none of them had ever seen before.  "In here," Colette said, motioning them forward.

            Anni was the first to follow.

            In the center of the room, suspended in a dark mist, were many babies, of all stages of development, none of them old enough to have yet been naturally born.  As in a trance, Anni walked toward the one whose essence was calling her.

            He was so tiny.  So innocent, and somehow she knew, so scared.  Anger clouded her face.  She would get him out of here.

            "Well, well, well," came a voice from the doorway.  The girls whirled around to see Travers, who knew quite well where Joscelyn had gone and got a perverse pleasure out of the fact that she would discover to late that her betrayal was to be without benefit, as he had known all along to keep an eye on the girls.  The Wyndham-Price girl was trouble.  Travers shot her a lazy look.

            "I see you found what you came for," he commented.

            Fury in her eyes, Anni turned toward him, willing him to come within striking distance.

            "You're a monster," he said.

            "No," Travers corrected.  "Genetically speaking, _you_ are."

            After much squirming, Cordelia finally put Hopie down, allowing her to skip joyfully down the hallway.  Angel and Wes had made short work of the Council's guards.  

            "No skipping with the crossbow, baby," Cordelia reminded the little girl.  Hopie hummed to herself before coming to a dead stop.  She tilted her head, listening and then nodded.

            "We're supposed to go this way," she said, and, ignoring Cordy's warning, started running in that direction, Buffy, Faith, Angel, Spike, and Connor right on her heals.  Those without super strength followed at a distance.

            "Maybe he'll beat little Miss Anni," Joss mused, hating herself for thinking that way.  Joss spent a good deal of time hating herself.

            She jumped as the window next to her shattered, and a lean, powerful wolf came through it, teeth bared and growling.

            Jordy backed the girl into a corner, wanting to give her a good scare.

            A very relaxed voice came from behind him.  "Not that I don't understand the draw of a good growl," Oz said, "but didn't you outgrow this a few years ago?"

            Jordy ignored him and advanced on the terrified girl, determined to give her a good scare.

            "Don't worry, he doesn't bite," Oz said, and then, realizing the irony of the sentence, he shrugged.  

            Joscelyn was somewhat less than comforted.

            The Potentials stared at Travers as Anni advanced on him, slowly.  

            "You see," he said, "it's really quite ironic.  We thought the mythos of slayers being imbibed with the power of a demon was little more than a fishwives tale, but alas," Traver executed a dramatic shrug, "the genes don't lie.  You see," he said, gesturing around him, "your blood revealed a certain variation on chromosome six, one that is, oddly enough, shared by every demon, vampire, or otherwise evil creature we could find."

            Anni took a deep breath, making every effort to keep her cool.

            "You see, girls," Travers said, a satisfied glint in his eyes as he addressed all of the Potentials except Anni, "you're little more than demons."  Anni took a step forward.  Travers wasn't in the least threatened.  "If I've had to beat you like the animals you are occasionally," he said with a cruel smile, "well, I suppose it was for your own good."  He stared at them, the threat clear in his eyes.  

            Nicolaa stood in front of the others, staring Travers evilly in the eye.  "It was my fault," she said, her voice ringing with authority.  "Only mine."

            Maddy made a sound of protest.

            "Interesting," Travers said.  "Then I suppose their scars and their blood will be on your hands."  Anni's hand fisted.  "Blood," the man reiterated, never losing his exterior polish, "is what we needed for the tests.  Of course, yours alone was not sufficient to establish the heredity of the genes.  That's what these _things_ here were for."  He gestured to the babies.       

            With a battle cry, Anni ran towards him.  Two men and a demon came into the room.

            "Tut, tut, Annabella," Travers said.  "Such temper."  

            One of the large men made a grab for Anni.  He found himself lying on the floor in less than a second, unconscious.  Travers stared at Anni as she took out the second man just as easily and began to focus on the demon.

            The demon was easily thrice size, and as he watched, thoroughly entranced, Travers heard a voice from the doorway that sent chills up his bones.

            "Consider yourself a dead man," Wes said, somehow beating the lot with super speed to the door.

            Travers simply arched an eyebrow.  "Your sister is well taught," he said, as one extending a compliment.  "Funny, one would almost think she was the slayer."  Buffy and Faith both appeared in the doorway beside Wes.

            "Yeah," Buffy said, "one would almost think."

            Faith grinned at Travers, her eyes deadly.  

            Travers hit a button on the wall, releasing the demons from their cages throughout the corridor.  In the hallway, Angel, Spike, and Connor easily took out a handful, and the others added their strength as the battle raged.

            Wes, completely oblivious to the chaos around him, took one step after another toward Travers, never blinking and never taking his eyes off the man.

            "THIS IS FUN!!!" came a voice from the hallway.  

            Anni, ducking a blow from the large green demon in front of her, giggled.

            In the hallway, Hopie reloaded her crossbow like an expert, taking down her fourth vamp before turning her attention to a very large, hideous Tguthor Demon who was leering at the little girl, salivating at the thought of what a tasty little morsel she would be.

            Hopie giggled.  "Do you want to play with me?" she asked, batting her eyelashes.

            "Come here," he said. 

            "What's the magic word?" Hopie asked, mimicking Cordelia.

 He bent down to pick up the child, but she was no longer standing where she had been the moment before.

            Moments later, and arrow was firmly imbedded in his skull, and a microsecond after that, his neck had been snapped, even though the tiny girl had to crawl up his back to do it.

            "You shoulda said please," she said sweetly.

            Between the two slayers, the two vampires, Hopie, and Connor, they had managed to talk out all of the demons except for the two which had wandered into the room with the Potentials.

            Maddy, imitating Anni, let out a war cry and launched herself at the first demon.  Kendall, letting out a curse in Maddy's general direction, followed, both of them putting their training to good use.  Nicolaa faced the second demon alone, but it knocked her across the floor.  As it advanced on her, she scrambled to her feet.

"Hey ugly!" Colette yelled from behind him, suddenly overcome with inspiration. Travers reached out and grabbed Chance by the hair before she could jump into the fight.  The little blonde girl winced in pain as the older man cruelly ripped her head backwards.  

            Wes sucked in a breath.  None of the Potentials looked surprised by Travers' actions.  If he had in any way hurt Anni…

            Anni finished her demon and bounded across the room, sending one deadly blow in the direction of the demon looking back and forth between Nic and Colette.  She turned to help Maddy and Kendall, but someone beat her to it.

            Hopie tugged on the demon's leg.  "Excuse me, Mr. Demon," she said, distracting him as he was about to send Maddy flying across the room, "but I gotta tell you something."  The demon, confused, bent down to the little girl's level.  In a motion so quick none of the others saw what she had done, Hopie sent the demon flying across the room.

            Anni turned to Travers.  "Let her go," she said, her voice deadly.  

            Before he even had a chance to respond, Travers found himself slammed into a wall, Chance pried out of his grip.  Wes tightened his fingers around his throat.

            "Did he lay a finger on you, Anni?" he asked, his voice still low and dangerous.

            "Once," Anni replied steadily.  "It didn't hurt."  She felt like a failure.  She hadn't saved his son.  She hadn't stopped Travers.  Wes would realize by now that she didn't suit.  That she couldn't do anything right.  Wes practically heard the worries as they flew through Anni's head.  Reluctantly, he loosened his hold around Travers' neck.

            "I trust you can handle this, Anni?" he asked.  Anni nodded not understanding.

            "You leave me to a mere girl?" Travers asked, laughing.  "A Potential is still a Potential."

            In an instant, Anni had Travers raised high over her head, his eyes bulging in fear.

            Giles took his glasses off and cleaned them on his shirt.  "Funny thing," he said.  "Did I ever, in any of my Council reports mention that Anni was magically gifted and through her own will, called by the strength of Turot as a non-slayer?"

            Anni waited until Travers had turned a nice shade of purple before she dropped him to the ground.  

            "I believe you forgot to mention that, Rupert," Travers gasped, his hands going to his throat.

            Giles shrugged.  "How terribly odd," he commented.

            Anni wanted to kill Travers, but she couldn't do it.  Hopie spat on him.

            "Hope!" Cordelia and Angel both scolded at once.  "Spitting isn't nice."

            Hopie shrugged.  "Can I kick him once real hard?" she asked.

            "Sure," Angel said.

            "Try not to puncture anything too important," Cordy cautioned.  Hopie gave the man one good kick to the ribs.  Travers groaned.  Chance and  Kendall were both grinning wildly at the sight of the tiny domineering over the man who had ruled their lives for so long.

            Travers coughed.  

            "Give me one reason I shouldn't kill you," Buffy said, her voice hard.

            The Potentials stared at her in awe.

            "You don't kill humans," he replied.  Faith raised an eyebrow at him, trusting that he didn't know that she would never again take a human life.  "You'll never get them back without me," Travers wheezed, referring to the babies that still hung, suspended magically in the air.  "You don't know the spell or have that kind of power."

            Lilah finally spoke up from the doorway.  "He's right," she said.  "If we want it back, we need him."  Wes couldn't help but notice that she referred to their baby as "it."  He felt his heart sink as he realized that getting the baby back was more of a matter of pride to Lilah than a matter of love.

            "No we don't," Hopie said.

            Lilah glared at the child.  "Yes, we do," she commented.

            "No we don't," Hopie said stubbornly.  Lindsey chuckled at the look on Lilah's face.

            "Hopie, baby," Cordy commented, "we might need the bad man to help us."  Travers raised his eyebrows at being referred to as "the bad man."

            Hopie stomped her foot.  "Mr. D. and Miss T. say we don't," Hopie said.

            The Potentials were confused.

            "Her imaginary friends," Angel explained.

            "They aren't make believe!" Hopie insisted.  Everyone rolled their eyes.  "Come out now?" Hopie asked nicely.

            Suddenly, a man and a woman materialized in the middle of the room.

            "Still a bit o' a skeptic, aye Angel?" the man asked.  The woman standing next to him smiled gently at the faces she recognized in the room.

            "Doyle!" Cordelia said, her voice catching in her throat.

            "Tara?"  Willow's voice was disbelieving.

            "Told you they were real," Hopie said in a sing song voice.

            There was a deep silence, which Maddy gladly filled after just a moment.  "Bloody hell!" she exclaimed.

            Spike raised his hand.  "I second that," he said.  

            "Bloody hell!" Hopie echoed.

            Cordy shot a death look at Spike.

            "I didn't say it," Spike said, shooting a look at Maddy.

            Maddy shrugged.  "It seemed appropriate," she said with a grin, completely unabashed.

            Doyle was the next one to break the silence.  "You have eyes," he said in Dawn's direction.  "See."

            Dawn stared at Chance for a moment and gasped.  "Buffy," she said, her mouth dropping open in shock, "she's you."

TBC… I know things are still a bit confusing, but this chapter is just getting way too long.  More on Tara, Doyle, and Chance in the next chapter, where everything will finally make sense.  Please review if you'd like a quick update.


	12. Good Luck

DISCLAIMER: I think we all know who I own and who I don't by this point in time.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I am so, so sorry it took me so long to write this chapter.  My only excuse is that my classes just all piled on the work all at once.  Please, please, please keep reviewing, and I promise a more timely update.

Things Unseen: Chapter Twelve

            "Buffy," Dawn repeated.  "She's you."

"She's what?" Buffy asked, thinking that Dawnie had eaten a few too many of Hopie's graham crackers on the plane ride.

            Dawn looked from her sister back to Chance.  "Look at her, Buffy.  She's you when you were eleven or twelve."  Dawn looked to Doyle for confirmation.

            "There's a good lassie," Doyle said, praising the slayer's little sister for finally getting it at least partially correct.

            "Doyle?" Cordelia said again, a bit of the old Queen C coming into her voice.  "You've been playing with my daughter for over a week, and you let us think you were her invisible friends?  What's up with that?  Thanks for the visions, by the way.  You're a doll."

            Hopie grinned at her mother.  "Told you he was real, Momma," the little girl said, tossing her crossbow from hand to hand excitedly.  "It's not Mr. D's fault you couldn't see him before, a cause we had to come to the place of the big magical no-no before he and Miss T could be real."

            Hopie grinned at everyone.

            Anni could feel Chance trembling behind her, and she put an arm around the girl, hugging her.  Chance, more than confused, stared at Buffy.  Was that what she was going to look like when she grew up?

            Willow's eyes had glazed over with tears, and she took a step toward Tara.  "Tara?" she asked again.  Tara nodded, her hair swishing in the slight light that surrounded her.

            "There were strong magics released," Tara said, her voice wavering a little at first as it always had during her lifetime; however, now it also contained wisdom and a quality of peacefulness.  

            "Strong magics?" Willow asked.

            Hopie stared pointedly at Travers, who was still writhing in agony on the floor from being thoroughly trounced.

            "The blood of the Five," Giles commented, remembering something he'd heard of and dismissed as improbable.  "'The blood of five possibilities shall release the deep magic and rip the fruit from the womb.'  The possibility part must refer to the girls being Potentials."  

            Angel stared incredulously at Giles.  "And you didn't think that piece of information was going to be important?" he asked.

            "Well," Giles said, a little abashed, taking off his glasses to clean them, "I always assumed the womb part was a metaphor."

            Willow nodded, finally understanding what was going on.  "The balance was disturbed," she said softly, looking to Tara for confirmation.  "When that kind of dark magic is released…" she trailed off.

            "Aye," Doyle said, tweaking Willow's hair a bit with a grin.  "An opposite agent of good magic was released."  Doyle's face grew grave.  "It hurt the little one," he said referring to Hopie, "as her essence is tied to the old magics this pathetic scrap tried to violate."

            Cordy looked at Hopie, who was grinning like a maniac, and realized the full potential of what Doyle had said.  "The invisible force that attacked Hopie?  That was Travers' doing?"

            Doyle nodded a quick affirmation and grinned as the seer walked over to Travers, took one look at him lying on the ground and said, "Hopie, cover your eyes, baby."  Hopie covered your eyes.

            "You're gonna kick him, aren't you, Momma?" Hopie asked, peaking through her fingers in time to see Cordelia deliver a crushing kick to Travers' groin.

            The smile on Kendall's face grew.  "You know, I always thought I wanted to be the one to kick his ass, but watching the three of you do it," she paused, indicating Cordy, Hopie, and Anni, "was just as much fun."  She thought about it for a moment.  "Well, almost anyway."

            "Not to make with the subject changing," Buffy said, raising her hand slightly, "but can we get back to the whole 'that little blonde girl is me' thing?"

            "Forget that," Lilah said, staring greedily at the powerful beings in front of her.  "If you guys are agents of good magic, then reverse this and put these things back where they belong."  She gestured to the babies, still suspended in the air.

            _Things?_ Wesley thought, irate.

            _They aren't things, Willow thought back, subconsciously taking his hand in hers.  _He's your son._  Tara smiled softly at Willow, giving her blessing to the relationship._

            _You heard that? Willow thought.  Tara nodded._

            _He loves you, she thought back.  _And you love him._  Willow's eyes filled with guilt.  __And that's okay. Tara said.  __Your love for him and his for you only strengthens the love we shared.  It gives me peace now to know that you have love in this world._

_            Thank you, _Wes said silently, his mind still very much on his child.

            "Enough with the mind talk," Hopie said a little crossly, not wanting to be left out.  

            Tara laughed softly.  "All right then, little one, are you ready to help put things right?"  Hopie jumped up and down and nodded.

            "Yup, yup!" she replied happily.

            "We'll need a vessel," Doyle said, casting a look in Willow's direction.  "The wee one there can tap into our powers, but she doesn't know how to use them."  Willow nodded, and at Doyle's instruction, the Potentials, Anni, Wes, and the Fang Gang and Scoobies gathered around the Wiccan, forming a circle around her.  Willow sat in the middle, with Hopie held in her lap.

            As they joined hands, Chance took Buffy's hand into her own, and a slight shock went through them both.

            "Much with the weird?" they both muttered.

Doyle and Tara each took one of Hopie's hands and the little girl wrinkled her forehead as the agents of good magic let their power flow into Hopie.

Hopie jumped up all of a sudden.  She turned around and bent down, pressing a kiss firmly to Willow's stomach.

"For good luck," she explained.  

"How is that good luck?" Connor asked.

"Like Pretzels," Hopie said, reverting to four-year-old logic.  Without saying another word, she sat gently back in Willow's lap, taking the agents' hands in hers.

Willow felt the incredible amount of magic the little girl contained, and she whispered the words that she knew needed to be said.

"Magic of old, I call on you…"  As she said the remainder of the spell, her head was thrown back, her eyes glowing a brilliant blue and her hair emitting golden light.  Suddenly the light disappeared.  Nothing had happened.

"Slight delay," Doyle explained, shrugging.  "It happens sometimes."

Buffy raised her hand again.  "Back to the Chance is me issue," she said.

Dawn grinned at her sister.  "It's always about you, isn't it, Buffy?" she asked.  Buffy rolled her eyes.

"Tara!" Willow cried suddenly, noticing the woman disappearing slowly from the room.

"Things are the way they are supposed to be," Tara commented.  "We must now return." She pressed a final kiss to Willow's lips, a soft kiss of friendship and tenderness.  "Goodbye," she said softly.  

Doyle looked at his friends, knowing that they had barely had the chance to see him again.  He, on the other hand, had been watching them for some time.  "G'bye," he said, grinning.

A tear fell from Cordy's eye.  

"Don't be crying now, me queen," Doyle said, wiping the tear from her cheek.  "I'll be back.  The little one will see to that."

Hopie, seeing Cordelia's tears, started to sniff as well.  "Don't leave me," she begged the people who had been her 'imaginary' friends.  "Who will I play with?"

 "Your daddy and mommy, Connor, Spike, Dawn, Buffy, Faith, everyone," Tara said, kissing the top of the little girl's hair.  

              "Angel's a much more fetching Princess than I am anyway," Doyle said, ruffling the little girl's hair.

            Spike snorted. 

            "Don't worry, Mr. Spike," Hopie said.  "You're the prettiest Princess of all.  You and Connor."

            Connor groaned.

            "I tied that whelp?  I'm much prettier than…" Spike trailed off, realizing what he was saying.

            And on that note, Doyle and Tara disappeared from view.

            "So," Buffy said finally, "how 'bout that me having a clone thing.  How did it happen?"

            "I think I might have the answer to that," a voice said from the floor.  Everyone looked at Fred.  She was sitting over in the corner, surrounded by file folders she had taken from a safe.

            "The safe broke open during one of the squirmishes," she said, pushing her glasses up on her nose a bit.  "I saw one of the files labeled with a simple logarithmic based code, and I just couldn't help myself."

            Gunn grinned at Fred, still not believing that he had such a wonderful partner in his life.  

            "Long story short," Fred said, "these are genetic sequences."  She held up a group of files.  "Of the potentials."  She pointed to another stack, "Of the babies."  Finally, she picked up three file folders.  "And of the slayers and the key."

            "How in the world did they get those?" Faith asked, carefully censoring her language around Hopie.

            "They must have had a blood sample, or something," Fred said.  Giles carefully avoided looking at Buffy.

            "Giles!" Buffy said.  Giles shrugged sheepishly.

            "It was standard procedure for you and Faith, for records and such.  I have no idea how the Council got a hold of Dawn's blood."

            "Um, doesn't my blood open portals?" Dawn asked nervously, expecting the entire room to implode somehow.

            "Only when the right mystical and physical forces converge according to a proper matrix," Giles said.  Fred, Wes, and Willow nodded in understanding.

            "Big with the 'huh?' here, Giles," Buffy said.  "Then again, I don't really need to know, do I?"

            Giles cleared his throat.  "No," he said, thankful he didn't have to break the science down into Buffyese.

            "Not meaning to be impatient here, but can we please listen to the floor lady's explanation for why I'm Buffy?" Chance squeaked.  

            Fred held up two DNA chromatography x-ray strips.  She placed one over the other and held it to the light.  They were almost identical.  

            "Freaky," Buffy said, "but that still doesn't explain why we're the same person."

            "You're genetically very similar," Fred said.  "There's a difference, and that's not the interesting thing.  The interesting thing is Dawn's sequence."

            "I already know I'm not real. The monks made me from Buffy.  Can we not dwell on it please?" Dawn whined.

            "Not just Buffy," Fred said.  "Otherwise, I'd expect you to have the same DNA, like Chance.  See, all kids get some of the genes from their mother and the rest from their father.  Buffy wasn't the only genetic donor, otherwise, you'd just have her genes."

            "Great," Dawn said.  "So those twisted monks made me out of Buffy and some Mr. Anonymous mystic sperm essence donor?  I feel so comforted."

            Connor decided at that moment that he'd have to take sarcasm lessons from Dawn, as she was truly a master.

            "Not a Mr. Anonymous," Fred said, holding up another strip triumphantly.  

            "We know who it is?" Dawn asked.

            "From each a half to each a half!" Hopie giggled behind her.

            "Yes," Fred said, "and it isn't a 'Mr.' Anybody."

            "Aunt Faith, Aunt Faith, Aunt Faith!" Hopie chorused.

            Fred nodded in confirmation.  "You're half Buffy, half Faith," she said to Dawn.  

            Everyone was silent for a moment.  Faith felt as if she had been punched in the stomach.  Before she'd met Lindsey, she'd never felt a part of anything her entire life.  Now, she was learning that Dawn was a part of her.  Dawnie was as much her sister as she was Buffy's, and yet the monks had sent her to Buffy.  The monks had known that B was worthy and that she wasn't.  Lindsey rested a hand on her shoulder and placed a quick kiss on the top of her head.  He knew the phantoms that haunted Faith, and he was determined to banish them.

            "You know," Anya said slowly, "this explains a lot.  Like why Dawn has brown hair.  When you think about it, she sort of looks like a mix of Buffy and Faith."  Anya paused for a moment and then continued.  "It's just so sad that there was no sex involved."

            "An," Xander said warningly.

            Anya gave everyone an insistent look.  "Sex is reproductive.  Reproducing without sex is like playing Monopoly with fake money.  It's just not the same."

            "You play with real money?" Colette asked, her voice well above her normal whisper.

            Anya nodded.  "Fake money is just paper," she preached, "whereas real money is paper with bartering value."

            "That still doesn't explain why Chance is so much like Buffy," Nicolaa pointed out.  

            "Yes," Anni said slowly, "it does.  An essence can't just be torn in half.  With sex, the diploid chromosome is split."  Wes stared at her.  "Sex ed," she clarified.

            "Remind me to look into private school," Wes muttered to the room as a whole.

            Anni continued, making sense of the situation as she spoke.  "But you can't just split an essence like that.  The remainder of Buffy's essence, her genes, they had to go somewhere."

            "Me," Chance said, wondering what in the world was going on.

            "But Chance is much more similar to Buffy genetically than Dawn is," Fred pointed out.

            "And I've looked like this my whole life," Chance said.  "Honest."

            Wes picked up where Anni had left off.  "Going from the assumption that Chance has indeed existed for eleven years," he said, thinking carefully.  "It's entirely possible that the remaining half of Buffy's essence chose her as a vessel because she was genetically similar to Buffy to begin with."

            Giles nodded.  "I would imagine slayer genes to be quite powerful," he said.  "It's not out of the question that the genes Buffy somehow donated to Chance would have the power to override existing genes."

            "So, what?" Chance asked.  "So one day I'm me, and then the next day, boom, I'm Buffy."

            "I doubt there was a boom," Willow said helpfully.

            "And we know there was no sex," Anya muttered underneath her breath.

            "Anya, I'll give you five dollars to stop talking about sex," Xander said.

            "Interesting proposition," she said.  "Capitalism at its best, isn't it?"  

            "Will you give me five dollars not to talk about sex?" Maddy asked curiously.  

            Anya beamed at her.

            Xander groaned.

            "Shut it, Maddy," Kendall said playfully.

            Willow turned her attention to Chance.  "You're still you," she said softly, "you're just the Buffy version of you."

            "And you're a Potential," Dawn said, something becoming clear in her mind.  If being a slayer was somehow genetic, then if Chance was a Potential, it meant that she wasn't, that she'd never be.

            "More than a Potential," Anni said after a moment.  "If she has part of Buffy's essence as well as her genes, then she's almost a slayer."

            "A demi-slayer," Gunn said.  Everyone stared at him.  "What?" he said.  "Can't I say something intelligent every once in a while?"

            "A demi-slayer," Chance said.

            "That's bloody wicked," Maddy informed Chance.

            Lindsey rubbed Faith's neck softly, knowing that she was coming to the same realization that he was.

            "If Dawn is half me and half Buffy," Faith said out loud, "and if Buffy's slayer half went to Chance, where did my other half go?"

            The question hung in the air.  

            "Somewhere out there," Lindsey said, speaking the words they were all thinking, "there must be another demi-slayer.  A demi-Faith."

            The room was silent for a moment, and then Hopie began jumping up and down excitedly.  "It's happening," she sang out.  As soon as the words left her mouth, a deep rumble went through the room as Willow's spell took its delayed effect.

            One by one, the babies started to disappear from the room and reappear in their mother's wombs.  

            "It's about time," Lilah said.  "I have too much invested in this to leave here without it."

            Wes gritted his teeth at the lack of emotion Lilah showed for their child.  There was no way he was going to let her give their child to Wolfram and Hart.  No way.  

            Pink smoke filled the air as the last baby was returned to the womb.  When it cleared, chaos broke out.

            "What the hell is going on?" Lilah screamed.

            Willow looked down at her stomach.  Her very pregnant stomach.  Hopie grinned and ran over and kissed her stomach.  Again.

            "Good luck," she reminded her with an impish grin.  "Like Pretzels."

TBC… sorry to end it there, but this chapter was getting too long.  Since I didn't do everything I wanted to that chapter, there will be two more chapters in this fic.  Next up, the Potentials (and another OC) come to Sunnydale/LA, Wes, Anni, and Willow work things out, Lilah makes her excuses to the company, and some quality Oz/Jordy interaction.  Then, the Faith/Lindsey wedding in chapter fourteen, with Hopie as a flower girl and plenty of fluffiness, of all varieties.  As for the other demi-slayer… that's for the next story, should I decide to write one.  PLEASE REVIEW if you'd like a quick update.               


	13. You wanna know what would be neat?

DISCLAIMER: I own Hopie, Anni, and my Potentials.  All others are the intellectual property of Joss Whedon et al.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, for all of you holding out for the fluff, I promise it IS coming.  The next chapter is entirely fluff, and I'll try to get some good moments into this one.

On that note, I will probably be putting out two more fluffy Hopie fics in the next couple of months, both of which will be VERY Cordy/Angel fluffy for those of you shippers out there.  One will be coming out in March, and all I'll tell you is that it's *very* appropriate for the month of March (think March 17th).  The other will come out prob early May, and will center around Hopie's birthday (which I remembered is actually in early May).

On the serious fic front, the next in the series will prob be out end of March or very early April and will be entitle Thine Own Self: as the Scooby Gang's search for the demi-slayer intensifies, The Fang Gang discovers that Connor's birth had certain repercussions: to be specific, a vamp baby born to two human parents.   Hehehehehehe… toddler vampire… let the fluffiness and plot twists begin!

Okay, I know this author's note is getting long, but I wanted to address a review by angelncordyluv4ever.  First of all, babe, no worries, all reviews are appreciated, even those with criticism.  Thank you for being respectful and helpful with your reviews.  I appreciate it.  You're absolutely right about the princess bit… I've used it to death and then some.  Don't worry, I'll think of something new and equally fluffy for this chapter.  

And if you're still confused (I'm assuming about the demi-slayer stuff) I'll try to explain it to you now.  The monks made Dawn from Buffy and Faith, half from each; however they were then left with half of each of the slayers left over, and they couldn't just discard half of an essence.  So, the monks put those halves of the genes into vessels, one of which was Chance.  Both demi-slayers were chosen because of a preliminary genetic similarity to each of the slayers.  Chance already looked like Buffy, by "chance" (and yes, that was on purpose), and so the rest of Buffy's essence/genes just sorta took over her body a bit, making Chance almost genetically equivalent to Buffy.  As such, she is more than just a Potential.  She's as Buffy was at age eleven.  Hence, when Chance is as old as Buffy was when she was called… she'll be a slayer automatically.  You'll see the demi-Faith in the next installment, but just know that it was the same underlying process.

As for your opinion about Lilah's baby, I would like to agree with you.  It certainly isn't fair to Lilah, and I don't think it's right to steal a baby from the mother; however, regardless of whether it is just or not, that IS what happens.  I'm not going to deny Lilah the right to be upset, but that doesn't change the way things stand now.  On TV and in life, things don't always happen fairly.  This is one of those things.  If you'll read on, you'll get to see how Lilah deals with it, and just know that I have an overall purpose for all of this with respect to the next fic.

All of you reviewers, thank you for your opinions.  I take each of them into account, and it's always nice to know that someone out there is reading.

FINALLY TIME FOR THE ACTUAL STORY

Things Unseen: Chapter Thirteen

            Sitting quietly in the plane, Hopie took stock of the situation.  Wes and Willow were sitting quietly to the left side of the plane, her head on his shoulder, and his hand resting on her pregnant stomach.  Even though she couldn't hear the conversation, Hopie knew that the two of them were silent talking.  They did that a lot.

            _I feel bad, Willow though, not meaning to broadcast the though to Wes but unable to stop herself._

            _Don't, Wes replied, his heart hardened against Lilah from the moment he'd learned that she'd promised the baby to Wolfram and Hart.  __For all we know, the child might have been fed to a demon upon his birth, Wesley commented, shuddering._

            _Still, Willow thought back, her heart warmed by the feeling of connectedness with the life growing inside of her, _She___ is his mother.  She had this wonderful thing, this real thing, and he was the only real thing in her entire life, the only pure thing.  On some level, she had to have loved him.  Having him inside of you, a part of you, it's impossible not to._

_            Could you have loved him? _ Wes questioned.  _If it had been the other way?__  If Lilah had given birth to my son, and we'd rescued him from Wolfram and Hart?_

_            He's part of you_, Willow replied, purposefully not thinking about how hard it would have been, how hard it probably still would be.

            _He's part of you too, Wes thought back.  __Inside of you.___

For a moment, the two of them sat in silence.

            _I can't help but feel like this isn't right, Willow said.  Wes frowned.  _Having him in me is the most amazing feeling I've ever had, but I know that me having him means that Lilah doesn't, and no matter how much I know she didn't deserve him…__

Willow's mind voice trailed off as she sat her hand on her stomach, feeling the life beneath her hand.

            Hopie climbed out of her seat and went to sit in Willow's lap.  She stroked the Wicca's belly lovingly.  "He missed you," she said to Willow.  "For the longest time he's missed you.  Since before ever.  Lilah's sad, but she won't always be."

            Hopie looked Willow straight in the eye.  "They told me to," she said, referring to the good luck kiss that had marked Willow's stomach as the baby's new home.  "They said he was supposed to be yours, that there was a mistake.  It's all in the timing, they told me so.  He's home now."

            After a short pause, Hopie grinned at Wes and Willow.  "You look like you want special alone time," she said, "but I don't think that can happen on a plane.  Maybe we should ask Daddy and Momma.  They have lots of special alone time."

            Across the plane, Cordelia, overhearing this part of the conversation, blushed.

            "Don't worry, Aunt Willow," Hopie said.  "He was always yours.  Lilah wasn't supposed to have a baby yet."  At the word yet, Wes peered closely at the Shanshu child.  Hopie looked back at him, her eyes serious.  

"You know what would be neat, Uncle Wes?" she asked him, not waiting for a response.  "If doggie's could make snow cones.  That would be really neat."  

Wes looked at Willow, who shrugged.

"Well, yes, Hopie," Wes responded, "I do suppose that would be rather neat."

Hopie shot them one last grin and then got up and walked over, plopping herself down in her mother's lap.

"Momma," Hopie said.  "When are we getting married?" 

Cordy looked at her closely.  "What do you mean, baby?" she asked.

Hopie took the ring around Cordy's neck in her hand and played with it for them moment, spinning it in the light.  Then she held it up.  "You and me and Daddy and Connor," Hopie replied seriously.  "When are we getting married?"

Angel, not wanting to put Cordelia on the spot, glanced over at Connor, who was currently surrounded by Potentials.  "Well," he said jokingly, "you never know about Connor."

Dawn had her arm around him protectively, but that didn't stop Maddy and Chance from beaming at the older boy adoringly, and it didn't stop Connor from giving Kendall the occasional appraising look.  

It had been twenty-four hours since they'd all left the compound and come into the light of the morning.

Jordy, much to his dismay, had come back to his human form completely naked, which partially explained the way Joss was currently eyeing him.  The traitorous Potential had a long way to go to earn back the trust of the other girls, but like all of them, with the demise of Quentin Travers, she was heading to America, under the guidance of the new head of the Watcher's Council, Rupert Giles.

Joss sent Jordy a small smile, and Oz shook his head disbelievingly.  While he was all Wolfie the night before, Jordy had come dangerously close to tearing the girl to bits, and now she was looking at him like he was the most wonderful boy ever.  Go figure.

That girl, Oz thought, looking at Joss, had some serious issues.

 Anni silently was thinking very much the same thing.  She was also thinking that if Joss didn't stop looking at Jordy like she was mentally undressing him, she was going to have to, as Maddy so eloquently put it, flounce her.

Maddy and Chance listened wide eyed as Connor answered their questions about Quor-Toth.  

"Bloody hell," Maddy exclaimed.  "Did that really happen, Connor?"

Kendall rolled her eyes, but grinned.  No matter what happened, Maddy could always be counted on to be Maddy. 

"Madeline, watch your language," a deep British voice said with a smile from a few rows up.

Maddy rolled her eyes good naturedly.  Her parents had agreed to let her go to America, after some convincing on the part of Mr. Giles, but they'd insisted on sending a chaperone.  She snickered to herself as she imagined what Clay would say if he knew she was mentally calling him her chaperone.  In her mind, she changed it to nanny.  As much as it offended her sensibilities to have a built in nanny, she knew that her youngest older brother would die if he thought anyone thought of him in that way.

Clay was seven years Maddy's senior, nearly twenty years old, and he had jumped at the chance to come to America and live on the infamous Hellmouth.  Besides, Maddy had a penchant for trouble, and no one in their family hated Americans enough to release Lady Madeline on them without someone who knew who tricks to come along.

Clay shot a quick glance at Nicolaa, sensing that she and Kendall had protected Maddy best they could.  Something about the quiet girl, her modestly regal air and the delicate features of her face, made Clay think that maybe coming to America was going to be the best decision he ever made.

Lorne, watching fully amused as the younguns shot fluffy eyes at each other in every permutation possible, thought that they all might benefit from a little distraction before the natives got too restless and disaster struck the small plane.

"So," he said, "how about a little group singalong?"  He grinned at Maddy and tweaked her hair.  "You know you want to."

"Damn straight," Maddy said, echoing a phrase she'd heard Gunn use earlier that day.

"Maddy…" Clay said from a few rows forward, biting his cheek to keep from laughing.

Chance looked up at Lorne, remembering what they'd all learned about this particular type of demon.  "If we sing," she said, "you can read us, right?"

"Give the lady a prize," Lorne said chuckling.  "It's not hard," he said.  "Don't be shy.  You know one of you wants to."  Lorne turned very craftily to the one person he knew needed to sing for him the most.

"Anni, sweetie pie, show them how it's done," he said, smiling at the girl.  Anni removed her arm from around Jordy's neck and sat up a little as she began to sing the first song that popped into her head.

"Billy Ray was a preacher's son

and when his daddy'd come visiting, he'd come along

when they gathered round and started talking

that's when Billy would take me walking

out in the back yard we'd go walking"

Anni's strong and clear voice made it through the first stanza, as she played in her mind with the possibility of adjusting the lyrics to make the song about "a teenage werewolf boy" as opposed to "the son of a preacher man."  She knew that these thoughts were her attempt to mask what was really on her mind from Lorne, not that she expected it to work.  She continued with the song, her voice filling the plane. 

"The only one who could ever reach me

was the son of a preacher man

The only boy who could ever teach me

Was the son of a preacher man

Yes he was.  He was.  Oh yes he was."       

Lorne's eyes crinkled a bit as he was bombarded with the emotions Anni was feeling, her sense of inadequacy, her anger at Wes.

Hopie closed her eyes and, borrowing a little magic from Willow, tried something she'd never tried before.  She thought real hard about Lorne for a minute, and then real hard about Wes, and for an instant, Wes saw what Lorne was seeing: Anni's doubts and fears, her hurt, and he knew that the two of them had to talk.

Willow, being privy to Wes's private thoughts, also caught Lorne's vision temporarily.

She cast an indulgent look at Hopie and reminded her, "Ask first next time, Hopie-girl."

Hopie nodded wide eyed.  "It's nice to share, Aunt Willow," she said.  "They told me so in kindergarten."

            Angel looked at Hopie, well aware of the fact that Cordelia hadn't moved or said a word since Hopie had asked her question.  "Did you do something naughty, Hopie?" he asked her.

            Hopie batted her eyelashes at Angel.  "Of course not, Daddy," she replied.  "I wouldn't ever do anything like that."  She smiled sweetly at him, and Angel was reminded that it was just such a smile that had made him agree to be the Little Mermaid when Hopie had wanted to pretend to be the evil sea witch.  Angel grimaced at the memory of the little sea shell bra she'd made him wear.  Cordy had fashioned it just for him, giving him impish looks the whole time.

            He figured it could have been worse.  Hopie had insisted that Connor and Gunn play Sleeping Beauty with her, and the brawl those two had had over who had to be Aurora and who had to be the Prince was definitely memorable.

            Anni finished up her song, her voice now clouded with an emotion that didn't fit the lyrics.  Trying to ignore the feeling in her gut, she concentrated on Jordy, sending him a steady glance as she sang the last words.

            "He was a sweet, sweet man."

            Connor wrinkled his forehead.  Anni was altogether too young to be looking at someone like that, he thought.  He made a mental note to take Jordy aside the first chance he got and explain a few things about how a girl like Anni was supposed to be treated.

            Chance sighed, thinking that Connor looked very noble in that instant.

            Maddy thought he looked bloody hot.

            Kendall had decided that she was more of a Spike girl herself, though she didn't deny that Oz had a sort of quiet charm about him.

            "Anni," Wes said from the front of the plane.  "Will you come up here for a minute, please, baby girl?"

            Anni rose from her seat and approached her brother's seat, not sure whether to expect an inquisition or a sentencing hearing.  At least he hadn't said 'Annabella.'  That, at least, was promising.

            Coming to the front of the plane, she eased into an extra seat next to her brother, refusing to look at Willow.  She'd spent the better half of the last twenty-four hours ignoring them both.  Of course, the whole Willow-has-Lilah's-baby-Lilah-leaves-dragging-Travers-with-her thing had been a valuable distraction.

            "Anni," Wes said, taking her chin in his hand and forcing her eyes to meet his, "you suit me.  You will always suit me.  You are my sister, I love you, and I am only human.  As such, I am bloody stupid sometimes.  I'm sorry about that.  I wasn't angry with you so much as I was angry with Lilah.  I took it out on you, and that was wrong.  I'm sorry I hurt you."

            A tear slowly ran down Anni's cheek.  Part of her didn't want to believe him, because if she accepted his apology, if she allowed him back into her trust, her heart, and her life, she was destined to get hurt again.  

            "Perhaps, dear," she heard the voice echo in her head, "you just don't suit."

            She jerked her chin out of Wesley's grasp, but he forced her again to look at him.  "They were wrong," he told her.  "In so many ways, they were wrong."

            Anni let herself be pulled into a hug.  An instant later, she found her brother's face a mere inch from hers, his voice low and dangerous, his eyes blazing with pent up fury.

            "I was stupid, Anni, and I'm sorry for it, but you could have gotten yourself killed.  I don't care what your excuse was, how good it was, or what you were feeling, you don't ever do a thing like that.  Ever."  His voice sent chills down her spine.  This was the Wesley she hadn't known before she'd run away from England, the new rough and rugged Wes who really was just a little bit dangerous.

            "So help me, Annabella," he said, making her grimace a bit at the use of her full name, never a good sign.  "I don't know what I have to do to get it through your head that putting your life on the line like that is never okay.  I want you to trust me, but I understand after this if you can't, but dammit, Anni, you will obey my rules if I have to thrash you to get that through your head."

            Anni ignored his threats for the moment.  "I trust you," she said softly.  "I don't want to, but I do, and I'd vast prefer it if we could discuss this after you've gotten out of this snit you're in."

            "Snit?!" Wes asked, and then he noticed the grin on Anni's face.

            He pulled her into another hug, grateful that she was okay and trying to devise a suitable punishment for her trans-atlantic escapade.

            "Wes, if you'll excuse us, Anni and I have something to settle as well," Willow said.

            Wes shot a confused look at his love.  They were on a plane.  Where was there to go to?  An instant later, Willow and Anni had disappeared off the plane.

            Wes groaned.  "I hate it when they do that," he muttered.

            In the back of the plane, Lorne had talked Maddy into doing a rendition of a song of her choice.

            Maddy approached the chorus with relish.

            "I'm a _bitch_, I'm a tease, I'm a goddess on my knees…"

            She trailed off as everyone in the entire plane yelled, "Maddy!"  

            She shrugged, smiling and knowing that she'd already sung the only part of the song she wanted to sing anyway.

            "What?" she said, batting her eyelashes, Hopie style.

            Anni stared at Willow, stunned when the two of them appeared in her room at the Summers' house in Sunnydale.

            "You're not the only one who can relocate," Willow commented, feeling stronger than she ever had before with the life growing inside of her.

            Anni dug her foot into the floor.  "I guess I'm not," she said.  She noticed that the woman she was beginning to consider her sister had worked herself into a fine fury.  She decided to pre-empt any lecture with an apology.  "Listen, Willow, I'm really sorry," she said.  "I know I'm not supposed to do the relocation thing anymore, but I…"

            Her voice broke off as she was thrown across the room into a chair.  Her eyes widened.

            "You could have died," Willow said, her voice shaking a little.  "Even more than Wes knows.  You almost did, you know.  If Jordy hadn't been with you to call you out of it, you probably would have."

            Anni stuttered a bit, but Willow cut her off.  An invisible force pushed Anni roughly back into the chair as she went to stand up.

            "I know you were upset," Willow said, her voice staying strong though its volume was lowered a bit, "but you could have died, and I don't care how upset you were, using magic like that, letting your emotions fuel it, it isn't safe, and it isn't right.  Magic isn't here for that purpose, for us to use it to suit our grief."  Willow's voice caught a bit, and Anni's eyes widened.

            "I had to learn that the hard way," Willow said softly.  "I don't want that for you."  Willow gave the girl a hard look.  "You know, Wes keeps talking and threatening with the thrashing and whatnot, but we both know he'd die before he took a hand to you."

            Anni looked down.  Sometimes, with Wes, she wasn't so sure about that.

            Anni felt her head forced up by magic.  She stared at the pregnant woman in front of her.  "Well, I will.  I truly will make with the beating or thrashing or, or whatever you want to call it if you ever do anything like that again."  Anni stared at the woman in disbelief.  That was so very un-Willow.  Willow put on her resolve face.

            "You might not know this, yet," Willow told the younger girl, the anger going out of her voice, "but this is my resolve face.  It's impervious to whining and tears and cute little looks, so, you know, maybe you should just not do something like this again, okay?"  That sounded more like the Willow Anni knew.

            Anni nodded.  "Okay," she replied, wondering what kind of hormones were shooting through Willow's body.  That reminded her…

            "Hey, Willow," she said, her voice wheedling, "when my nephew gets here, do you think you and Wes might let me pick out a name?"

            Willow didn't respond.  Picking out a name for Lilah's baby.  It still seemed wrong to her somehow, even if Hopie insisted that the child belonged with her.  She rested her hand on her stomach.  At the same time, nothing had ever felt so right.

            A disheveled and furious Lilah Morgan walked into Wolfram and Hart after a long plane ride back.  She walked straight into a senior partners meeting.  They looked at her, the evil in their hearts masked by a charming exterior.

            "Lilah," one of them said to her.  "We were sorry to hear you were ill.  I trust you are recovered?"  Lilah looked at him, daggers in her eye.

            "Funny thing," she announced to the room as a whole.  "I wasn't sick.  Some bastards at the Watcher's Council stole my unborn child, I went with my sworn enemy to get it back, only to find out that The Powers that Be decided that some red haired tart from Sunnydale should have it instead."

            The partners looked around at each other, awkwardly.  It would be such a shame to kill such a beautiful lady, they thought, but she had interrupted a senior partner's meeting, and that type of thing wasn't easily forgiven without blood shed.

            "I take it our agreement with the Watcher's Council stands?" one of the partners asked.

            "Another funny thing," Lilah commented, "Quentin Travers has been displaced by Rupert Giles.  I doubt he'll honor any deal with you."

            The partners frowned jointly.  "That's unacceptable, Lilah.  We'll see to it that Mr. Travers is reinstated."

            Lilah laughed, bordering on hysteria.  "That might be difficult," she said, "considering that I left Mr. Travers lying bloody in a ditch somewhere in England.  I'm not really sure where, must be one of those sex differences in spatial cognition things."  Lilah smiled at them all, and one by one, the partners felt fear creep up their spines.

            They were justified in feeling so.  Within a minute, fueled by a supernatural rage and an arsenal of weapons, Lilah Morgan had done away with them all.

            Looking around at the dead bodies, she called for their secretaries.  "Get rid of these," she said, gesturing to the corpses around her.  "I'm the senior partner now."

            One of the secretaries started to say something.  She was on the floor in less than a second.

            "Anyone else have any arguments?" Lilah asked.

            Everyone shook their heads.  

            Lilah Morgan was now the sole force behind Wolfram and Hart.

            After they left the room, Lilah sat down in a chair and smiled.  "That was so much easier than waiting for a promotion," she said.  "I never much cared for that old boy's club anyway."  After enjoying her power for a moment, Lilah Morgan did the only thing left to do.

            She laid her head down on the desk, and then she broke down and sobbed for what she had lost.

            Back on the plane, Lorne was cajoling Nicolaa, Kendall, and Colette into singing, still wondering about Maddy's little diddy.

            Had he read her right?  If so, things were certainly going to be interesting.  He smiled.  Perhaps her song choice had been appropriate after all.

            Nicolaa, sensing she was trapped, came up with the first solution that came to mind.  "We'll sing," she said.  "After Connor, Lindsey, and Gunn do."

            Lorne grinned.  "Fair enough," he said, prying Lindsey away from Faith's side.  Colette beamed at Lindsey.  She was in awe of Faith, and in love with her fiancé.  Life took odd turns sometimes.  He was just so beautiful in a manly kind of way, Colette thought silently… those eyes.  She sighed.

            Connor, Gunn, and Lindsey huddled and talked for a minute, ignoring the fact that they were on a private plane and should be in their seats.  Then they turned back, with straight looks on their face.  Lindsey and Gunn pushed Connor forward first.  

            "You first," Gunn said.  Lindsey smiled.  He was last.  With any luck, he might not have to go at all.

            "Uh, guys, can't I sing another song?" Connor asked, casting a look at his fan club while he spoke to the guys.  Gunn grinned wickedly.

            "Nope," he said.  "You haven't bothered to learn any other songs."

            Connor shrugged.  Gunn was right.  In his time in this dimension, Connor had failed to learn the lyrics to any song but this one.

            He took a deep breath and began, muttering while he sang.  

            "I'm not a girl

            Not yet a wo-man…"

In the front of the plane, Angel grimaced a bit.  This was more than a bit disturbing.

"Soon," Cordelia said softly, finally answering Hopie's question.  Angel's eyes widened.  Cordelia unclasped the necklace and slipped the ring around her left ring finger.  Her wedding ring finger.

            She looked into Angel's eyes.  "Soon," she said, her voice loud and strong.

            Hopie clapped her hands.  "We're getting married," she said to herself, thrilled with the idea.

            Angel wrapped Cordy up in a passionate and long kiss.  Hopie, still on her mother's lap, watched, fascinated.

            "Hey, Uncle Wes," she yelled after a minute.  "I was wrong.  You can have special grown up time on a plane!"

TBC… okay, guys, next up, the Faith and Lindsey wedding (I know you've been waiting for this one, Imzadi!)… as for a Cordy-Angel wedding… all in good time, people… all in good time.  Anyway, some quality interaction between Connor and his fan club, protective Connor and Jordy, and Hopie's wedding present to Faith and Lindsey.  I'll give you a hint… Hopie wrote another book, just for the two of them.  Sequel to If you Give a Vamp a Cracker, anyone?

REVIEW!  PLEASE.  This was by far the longest chapter eve, it's 2:30 in the morning, I'm tired, my hands are numb from typing, and if you want the fluffy goodness of the epilogue any time soon, not to mention if you ever want to see the sequels, you'll be a good little fanfic reader and review.  Sorry for the threat-yness of all of this, but like I said.  It's 2:30 and I'm a little grouchy, so REVIEW!!!  


	14. Epilogue: The Wedding

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the AtS or BtVS characters.  Nor do I own any of the lyrics that appeared in the previous chapter.  I do, however, own Hopie, Anni, Leo Bunny, Chance, Kendall, Maddy, Nicolaa, Colette, Joss, and Clay.  If for some reason you'd like to borrow one of them, please ask first, by emailing me at Zcheer1054@aol.com.  I can be contacted at the same address for permission for distribution.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, I'm gonna respond to a few reviews.  Answering some questions…  Yes, the Senior Partners typically exist on a higher plane, but for the purpose of this story, Lilah killed the avatars of the partners, their human forms in this realm, and by doing so, she disconnected the other realms from this one, giving her sole power.

Dawn is not a Potential.  When the monks were making Dawn, they took the non-slayery part of Faith and the non-slayery part of Buffy.

Chance was not/ will not be called as a typical slayer.  Since the monks gave her Buffy's genes, along with her slayer essence, for purposes of calling, Chance IS Buffy, and therefore has and will develop more slayer powers.  The same goes for the other demi-slayer (for a little more info on her, check out the 'spoilers' afternote on my upcoming projects)

So sorry, but there will be no Wes/Gunn subtext.  As a general rule, I don't do slash, and I think the Lilah/Willow/Wes love triangle is complicated enough.

Yes, I realize the number of characters makes this a little confusing, but hopefully I'll be able to take care fo that by differentiating the Potentials a bit.  Some of them will be going to Sunnydale and some to LA, so as a general rule, you'll only have to deal with two or three of them at once.

I'm sorry I can't spend more time on Buffy/Spike, but I'll try to get a bit in here and there, and there will be more Spike with the Sunnydale Potentials.  Additionally, after the Cordy/Angel wedding, I'm sending Hopie to Sunnydale to stay with Buff and Spike, and she's a great little matchmaker.

Okay, if you guys still have any questions, let me know… and now let the FLUFFINESS begin.

Imzadi: The wedding may not be quite how you pictured it, but I hope you enjoy anyway

THINGS UNSEEN: Epilogue: The Faith and Lindsey Wedding

            Hopie Chase Angel stared in concentration at the image before her, trying to decide just what she thought about the girl looking back at her.  She cocked her head to the side and smiled at her reflection.

            "Pretty," she said after a moment, as Cordy fussed with her hair a bit.

            "You look very pretty," Cordy said, happy that the little girl wasn't complaining about her flower girl's dress.  When it came down to it, Hopie had every bit as much of Cordy's love of fashion as she did Buffy's super strength or Angel's enhanced senses.  

            "Momma," Hopie said, batting her eyelashes innocently.  "You know how you always say that accessorizing is very important?"

            Buffy, recognizing the look in Hopie's eyes, stifled a grin.  The little girl wanted something, and chances were, she would find a way to get it.

            Cordy grinned down at her daughter, knowing quite well where this conversation was heading.

            "You know what would look bea-u-ti-ful with this dress?" Hopie asked, her eyes opened wide.

            "A crossbow?" Cordy asked.

            Hopie shrugged.  She sent Cordelia a little smile.  "Just a little crossbow?" she asked pleadingly.

            "Hopie, baby, this is Aunt Faith's wedding.  How about you just throw your flowers and watch while Aunt Faith and Uncle Lindsey get married?" Cordy suggested.

            Hopie heaved a very big sigh.

            "Jeez, Cor," a teasing and distinctly nervous voice drawled from behind them.  "Let the kid have a little fun."

            Cordelia, Buffy, Anni, and Hopie all turned to look at Faith.

            The white dress sparkled a bit in the light as the fabric draped gently over her shoulders.  The design of the dress was simple and understated, and Faith hadn't bothered with an intricate hair style.  Instead, her dark locks hung free down her back.

            Hopie looked at Aunt Faith.  "Very pretty," she said.  "I think it's kinda a good thing that you and Uncle Lindsey are getting married, Aunt Faith.  I think maybe he really needs some special alone time with you, and now you look so pretty…"

            Cordelia put her hand gently over Hopie's mouth.  "That's it," she said out loud, "Anya and I are going to have another little discussion about what she can and cannot discuss in front of Hopie."

            Anni blushed a bit.

            Faith looked around.  "Where did Anya go?" she asked.

            Buffy spoke up.  "The others wanted to give you some time with just us," Buffy replied.  

            Faith swallowed the nervousness in her throat and thought about how a year ago she would have never pictured herself in this position.  Buffy, once the object of her envy and hatred, was standing by her side not only as another slayer, but as a bridesmaid.  Cordelia, who Faith had never noticed other than to scoff in her general direction in their Sunnydale days, was her maid of honor.  The two women had bonded over their joint interest in Hopie: Faith as her Champion and Cordy as her mother.

            The Shanshu child herself, currently twirling around a bit and watching her lavender dress poof out at the bottom, was as much of a child to Faith as her own children would be.

            Anni grimaced just a bit, feeling out of place among these people she had known for such a short time.  She'd never expected to be included in Faith's wedding party.  Honestly, she'd never expected to be included in much of anything at all.

            Faith, forgetting her own nervousness for just a moment, walked up and put her arms around the girl, liking the junior bridesmaid's dress on her.

            Faith held out her left hand and showed Anni her engagement ring.  She indicated the yellow jewel.  "That's you," she said.  "Whether you like it or not, you're a part of this, and I want you here."

            Anni smiled.

            "Are you ready?" Cordy asked Faith, feeling her own heart flutter at the idea that someday soon, she would be the one in the white dress.

            Tears came to Faith's eyes.  She shook her head a bit.  "I don't know," she said.  "I never thought I'd be here, doing this, with all of you.  I sure as hell don't deserve to be."  She held up her hand when Buffy would have broken in.  "But I thank whatever power exists in this world that I am, that I'm here, with all of you, about to throw up because I'm so nervous.  Because when it's all said and done, I'll have Lindsey.  It's funny.  I never really thought redemption would be so good looking."

            Faith shook her head again as if to clear her thoughts.  "And I definitely sound like a coffee commercial or something."  She picked up Hopie's flower basket and handed it to her with a wink.

            Hopie beamed back and then ran up to hug her Champion.  "Don't worry Aunt Faith.  I think Uncle Lindsey wants to throw up too.  Johnny C. threw up in kindergarten one day during art class.  We were making pretty pictures with glitter and…"

            The room erupted into laughter.  Sometimes, it was nice when Hopie was just a kid, and not the vessel of the world's oldest magic.

            Angel straightened his tie, grinning at his own reflection.

            "You look goofy," Gunn told him seriously.  "You really shouldn't smile.  Now I see why you do the whole broody thing."

            "I'm still not used to actually having a reflection," Angel said.

            Gunn snorted.  "From the amount of time you spend locked in your bathroom, you should be."

            Connor stood next to them, glaring viciously at his bow tie.

            Angel helped him straighten it, and Connor transferred the glare to his father's general direction.

            "This feels like a leash," Connor commented.

            Lindsey smiled at the room.  "Don't start talking about leashes in a room full of attached men," he advised the younger boy.  "That conversation cannot end well."

            "If Faith heard you say that, she would kick your ass," Connor commented.

            Lindsey grinned.  "That's part of what I love about her," he said.  The two of them had come a long way, to count as friends those who were formerly their enemies.

            "Are you ready?" Angel asked.

            Lindsey looked at him seriously.  "I'm not ready to get married," he said, crinkling the edge of his eyes slightly, "but I am ready to be married."

            In the sanctuary, Lorne prepared to conduct the wedding.  He'd been thrilled when Faith and Lindsey had asked him.  Fred looked at him.

            "Nervous?" she asked.

            "Me?" he asked.  "Do Bashyka demons wear spandex?"  He paused for a moment.  "Well," he said, "in a perfect world, the answer to both of those questions would be no.  I am a bit worried that the princess brigade over there might cause some problems."

            Fred looked toward the Potentials, who were sitting near Dawn.  As the men entered the back of the room, every single one of them turned around in their respective seats.

            "What harm ever came from a crush?" Fred asked.

            "That's what they said about Helen of Troy," Lorne commented.   

            Kendall rolled her eyes at the way Maddy and Chance looked at Connor.  She personally thought he looked a bit like a malnourished prairie dog.

            She cast a much more subtle glance in Oz's general direction.  He acknowledged her gaze without moving her head.

            "You know," Kendall said, "there's something sexy about someone who can go through the entire emotional spectrum using only two facial muscles."  She adjusted her gaze to look at Spike, who was sitting next to Wes and Willow.  There was also something distinctly sexy about a vampire with lots of confidence and a particularly fine body.

            Chance followed Kendall's gaze and decided there was something rather alluring about Spike.

            I shouldn't like him, she thought, but I do.  She wondered if that had anything to do with the Buffy genes.

            Nicolaa looked at Connor briefly, and then rested her eyes on Lindsey, who she admitted looked stunning in his tuxedo, but she was, after all, a sensible girl, and she knew that he was taken.  She'd never been given to silly flights of fancy anyway.

            Clay balanced his attention between glaring at Connor for receiving Maddy's attentive stare and shooting his own appreciative looks in Nic's direction.  There was just something about that girl.

            Lindsey took his place near Lorne, and as the small, intimate gathering settled into their seats, Colette let out an audible sigh.  

            Buffy joined arms with Gunn, feeling a bit awkward because she barely knew the man, but his smile put her at ease.  Behind her, Cordy and Angel joined arms as well.  Anni's heart quickened just a bit as she took Connor's arm, but she quickly turned her attention to looking at Jordy across the room.

            Connor frowned.  Anni was moving a bit too fast with this Jordy character for his taste.

            Faith bent down and whispered in Hopie's ear.  Hopie nodded vigorously.  The music started.  "Are you ready, Hopie girl?" Faith asked.

            "Five by five, Aunt Faith," Hopie replied.

            "That's my girl," Faith said.  

            Hopie walked down the aisle and delicately scattered a few peach rose petals as she walked.  After building up a little confidence, she put more energy into it, tossing the petals up into the air and giggling as they came floating back down.  Her hand went back into the basket and rested for a moment on the Chinese Stars Faith had snuck into the basket for her.  She pulled some flowers out with it and sent it flying toward Spike, who was nodding off just a bit.

            He dodged it as his eyes snapped open.

            "It's not nap time yet, Mr. Spike," Hopie said in a stage whisper before throwing some flowers in his general direction.

            Several petals landed on Spike's head.

            Anni and Connor came next.  Connor smiled at Dawn and Kendall as he passed, and then glared briefly at Jordy.  

            Buffy and Gunn came down the aisle, and Buffy wondered if she would ever be the person to walk down the aisle.

            Angel and Cordy walked slowly, as one.  Hopie waved at them both from the front of the church.  Their solemn expressions broke as they waved back at their daughter, the child who had paved the way for their family.

            At the back of the room, Faith's mind was flying_.  _

_She could hear dishes breaking, curses being yelled out.  She was four years old and sitting beneath the kitchen sink, waiting for her mother's drunken rage to pass. _

_ She was seventeen and realizing for the first time that being a slayer didn't make her any less the inadequate brat her mother had accused her of being. _

_ She was a murderer._

            She brought her head up, and from across the crowd, Lindsey's eyes met her.  Not even waiting for the music, Faith walked toward him, her bouquet held loosely by her side, her hair blown away from her face by a slight breeze of unknown origin.

            The others watched, each wondering how it had come to this point.  Faith didn't see any of them, or hear the Potentials' whispered words of awe.  She walked, her step solid and true, toward Lindsey, toward the person who understood her demons and loved her anyway.

            He wasn't just marrying Faith the Champion.  He was marrying Faith, the abused child, Faith, the stupid girl, Faith the murderer, Faith the redeemed.  He was marrying Faith the Vampire Slayer, Faith, the only girl who made him drop his exterior confidence, Faith, the girl who knew his demons as well.  She took his hands, and the two of them looked at each other for a moment, silent.

            "I love you," Lindsey said, his voice gruff with emotion.

            Faith looked at him, and said the words that she never thought she'd be able to say, the words she had never before deserved to utter.  "I love you, too."

            Lorne put his hands on his hips.  "Go ahead," he said with a smile, "steal my thunder."

            The resulting group chuckle died down after a minute.

            Lorne began talking again.  "Where I come from," he said, casting a quick look at Fred, "love is like music.  It doesn't exist."  He let the words hang in the air a minute.  "Well, those Pyleans may be as wound tight as Shirley Temple's curls, but they're right about one thing, even if it is in absentia.  Love is like music.  The tempo may vary, the notes may change, but there are no boundaries to either.  Music exists as much for the poor as for the wealthy."

            He cast a look at Cordy and Angel.  "As much for the demon as for the human."

            He brought his look back to Faith and Lindsey.  "As much for the flawed as for the saint.  Those who find love and appreciate it are blessed, and that blessing in and of itself is pure."  Lorne paused for a moment.  "I understand you kiddos have written your own vows," he said.

            Faith cleared her throat, pushing down the tears that wanted to come.  She took a deep breath.  "I take thee Lindsey to be my husband," she said.  "To have and to hold, to protect, to be protected by.  I promise to love you and to believe in you.  I was lost in a place where the only thing I knew for sure was that I didn't even deserve to be breathing the same air as normal people.  I guess I lived my whole life in that place, waiting for someone to tell me that I was wrong.  A few people tried, but I didn't believe them."  She took a deep breath and looked into Lindsey's finely lashed eyes.

            "When you tell me, I believe you," she said softly.  Her voice grew stronger.  "I love you for needing me and for being needed by me.  I love you for the man you are, for the father I know you'll be.  I want to spend the rest of my life loving you."

            Lorne dabbed the corner of his eye with a light pink silk handkerchief.  He turned to Lindsey.

            Lindsey looked at Faith, forgetting about the rest of their friends.  "I take thee Faith to be my wife, my partner.  I promise to love you always, because loving you fills a part of me that I didn't even know was empty.  You make me want to be a better man, because I see what an amazing person you are and in your eyes, I see the man I might one day be.  I love you because you're brave and strong and sweet.  I love you because you have a Champion's heart, but most of all, I love you because you're Faith, and that in itself is the most amazing thing."

            "I promise to love and cherish you as the person you are, for as long as we both shall live."  Lindsey leaned in and brought Faith tenderly into a long, slow kiss.

            Lorne harrumphed a bit.  "I now pronounce you husband and wife.  You may now come up for oxygen and continue kissing the bride."

            Hopie was the first one to let out a cheer, a joyous war cry.  Soon the room was filled with joyous noise, and Lindsey picked up Hopie, holding her in between him and Faith.

            "So what do you think, Hopie-girl?" he asked her.

            "I think getting married is fun," she said.  "And I'm glad nobody threw up, because this one time, in art class…" 

            An hour later, the reception was full under way in the hotel.  Connor, mildly exhausted after having been dragged out onto the dance floor by both Maddy and Dawn continuously, frowned as a certain Britney Spears song came on over the speakers.  He glared at Gunn, the current DJ.

            He excused himself and made his way over to Jordy and Oz.

            The three of them stood there for the entire duration of the song, saying absolutely nothing.  Connor raised his eyebrows just a bit.

            Jordy barely altered his facial expression in response.

            Oz moved his chin slightly, indicating that this argument was between the two of them.

            Connor narrowed his eyes a bit.

            Jordy stuck out his chin slightly in an almost imperceptible movement.

            "So," Connor said.

            Jordy understood perfectly.  "So," he said.

            Oz said nothing.

            "Anni," Connor said.

            "Anni," Jordy agreed.

            Oz said nothing.

            Connor gripped Jordy's arm.  Jordy growled a bit in the back of his throat.  Oz did nothing.

            Without saying another word, Connor turned and walked off, confident that he had gotten his point across.

            Hopie, a gift bag in her hand and an excited looking Anya in tow, ran up to Faith, interrupting her dance with Giles.

            "Sorry, Mr. Giles," she said, "but Faith needs to open my present."  Hopie yawned a bit.  Cordy sent Faith an apologetic look.

            "Sorry guys," she said, "but I know one little Shanshu who's about to go to bed."

            "I'm not tired," Hopie insisted, yawning.  She thrust the package at Faith.  "Uncle Lindsey too," she said sleepily.

            Lindsey cut out of a brotherly dance with Fred to come stand next to his wife.  Subconsciously, their hands entwined together.  With her free hand, Faith took the package from Hopie.  With his free hand, Lindsey reached in and pulled out something that looked suspiciously like Hopie's original work of fiction "If you give a Vamp a cracker."

            Spike, seeing the book, groaned.  "That better sodding well not be me," he said, recalling his starring role in Hopie's earlier book.

            "Nope-nope," Hopie said.  "This is a new book, just for Uncle Lindsey and Aunt Faith."

            Faith looked at the title and almost swallowed her tongue.  "If you give a Man a Slayer," she read.

            "It's quite good," Anya commented.

            Hopie grinned.  "Aunt Anya helped me with it."

            Lindsey cautiously opened the book, not knowing what to expect.  "If you give a man a slayer," he said, "he's going to need some weapons."

            Hopie nodded seriously and Faith and Lindsey oohed and aahed appropriately over Hopie's drawings of a dark headed stick figure holding a crossbow and another dark headed unexplainably more feminine stick figure holding a stake.

            Lindsey turned the page.  "If you give him some weapons, he's going to need big muscles to lift them with."  This time, the Lindsey figure was drawn with substantially bigger biceps.

            "If he has big muscles, he and the slayer can wrestle together," Faith read off of the next page.  She paused to give Anya a very suspicious look as she turned the page.  

            "If they wrestle together, they will get thirsty (and happy)," Lindsey read.

            "If they get thirsty, then they should buy lemonade from Hopie and Anya in the exercise of capitalistic freedom," Faith read, somehow doubting Hopie had written that page.

            "See the money," Hopie interjected.  "It's green."  Anya smiled at her little economic disciple.

            "Subliminal messages," Anya whispered to Xander who was standing next to her.  He nodded. 

              "If they buy lemonade, they will get more energy.  If they have more energy, then they can 'wrestle' some more."  Faith raised an eyebrow almost into her hair.

            "See," Hopie explained, "there are quotation marks a-cause…"

            Faith quickly turned the page.  "If you give a man a slayer," he read again, "they will live happy ever after."  Lindsey turned to the last page.  Hopie had written 'The End' and crossed it out.  In its place, in childish scrawl, were the words 'The Beginning.'

            The child was right.  It was a new beginning.

            "This is a wonderful gift," Lindsey said, trying to keep his mind off of 'wrestling.'

            "Oh," Hopie said seriously, "that's not your gift."  With that, the little girl leaned over and pressed a kiss firmly to Faith's stomach.

            "For good luck," Hopie clarified.  "When you wrestle."

            "For good luck?" Faith asked, casting a look at the pregnant Willow standing across the room.

            Hopie nodded.  "For good luck," she said, leaning in and kissing Faith's stomach a second time before skipping off to bed.  

            Lindsey pulled Faith into his arms and kissed her gently on the lips.  "For good luck," he said seriously.

            Angel peered at Cordy.  "Has Hopie given your stomach a good luck kiss lately?" he asked.

            She shook her head.  "But," she said as an afterthought, "we might not want the longest engagement in the world.  You never know when Hopie will decide she wants a little brother."

            Angel pulled Cordy into a deep kiss, oblivious of the Potentials who were currently gawking at them.

            Wes, catching the spirit of things leaned over and kissed Willow's stomach and then her lips.

            Buffy's lips met Spike's, and his hand gently caressed her hair.

            Jordy, a bit nervous, approached Anni.  "So," he said.

            "Um," she replied.  He leaned in and their lips touched for the very briefest instant.

            "So," Jordy said, a huge smile on his face.

            "Um," Anni agreed happily.

            A light breeze came through the hotel then, as two neat friends watched their loved ones rejoice.  It was a day of promise, of faith, of hope, and of love. The greatest of these was, as always, love.

THE END  Okay, I know that was loooong and way fluffy, but I hope you enjoyed it.  Please review and let me know what you think! 

COMING UP SOON (TEASERS FOR MY NEXT FICS)

Luck of the Irish: Angel's never been proud of the person he was before he was turned, but when his desire to forget the past leads him to shun St. Patrick's day, a group of leprechauns kidnap Hopie until Angel and Cordy can come to embrace their pasts together.  This is an ENTIRELY fluffy piece for all Angel/Cordy people out there.  Like A Very Hopie Christmas, it's a companion ficlet and not part of the actual series itself.  It will probably only be four or five chapters long, and the first chapter should be posted within the next few days, depending on how much time I have and on how reviews go for this chapter of Things.

Thine Own Self: Buffy and Faith search for the demi-Faith; The Fang Gang discovers the repercussions of Connor's birth, a toddler vampire; Bad Girl Anni; A (slightly familiar) love interest for Oz; Lilah as the head of W Hopie's first loose tooth.  Look for it at the end of March.


End file.
